Aard-wolf
Addax
Agouti
Alpaca
Ant-eater
Antelope
Anthropoid Apes
Aona
Ape
Argali
Armadillo
Ass
Aurochs
Avahi
Aye-aye
Babirusa
Baboon
Badger
Bandicoot
Bandicoot-rat
Bantin
Barbary Ape
Bat
Bear
Beaver
Beluga
Bharal
Binturong
Bison
Black Ape
Black Buck
Boar
Bongo
Bottlenose Whale
Bronco
Buck
Buffalo
Bushbuck
Ca’ing Whale
Calf
Camel
Capuchin Monkey
Capybara
Caracal
Cat
Catarrhine Ape
Cattle
Cavy
Chacma
Chamois
Cheeta
Chevrotain
Chimpanzee
Chinchilla
Chiru
Civet
Clouded Leopard
Coati
Colugo
Coyote
Coypu
Dasyure
Deer
Diana Monkey
Dingo
Dog
Dolphin
Dormouse
Douroucouli
Dromedary
Dugong
Duiker
Echidna
Eland
Elephant
Elk
Ermine
Eyra
Fallow-deer
Ferret
Field-mouse
Filander
Flying-fox
Flying Squirrel
Foussa
Fox
Galago
Galeopithecus
Gaur
Gayal
Gelada
Genet
Gerbil
Gerenuk
Gibbon
Giraffe
Glutton, or Wolverine
Gnu
Goat
Gopher
Goral
Gorilla
Green Monkey
Grison
Grivet
Groove-toothed Squirrel
Ground-squirrel
Guanaco
Guenon
Guereza
Hamster
Hare
Hartebeest
Hedgehog
Heifer
Heron
Hind
Hippopotamus
Horse
Hound
Howler
Humpback-whale
Hunting Dog
Hyena
Ibex
Ichneumon
Indri
Jackal
Jaguar
Jaguarondi
Jennet
Jerboa
Jumping-hare
Jumping-mouse
Jumping-shrew
Kangaroo
Kangaroo-rat
Kinkajou
Kit-fox
Klipspringer
Koala
Kudu
Langur
Lemming
Lemur
Leopard
Linsang
Lion
Llama
Loris
Lynx
Macaque
Macrauchenia
Mammalia
Manati
Mandrill
Mangabey
Manul
Mare
Markhor
Marmoset
Marmot
Marshbuck
Marsupial Mole
Marten
Merino
Mink
Mole
Mole-rat
Mole-shrew
Mona Monkey
Monkey
Moose
Mouflon
Mouse
Mule
Muntjac
Musk-deer
Musk-ox
Musk-rat
Musk-shrew
Mustang
Nilgai
Ocelot
Octodon
Okapi
Opossum
Orang-utan
Oribi
Oryx
Otter
Ox
Paca
Palla
Palm-civet
Panda
Pangolin
Panther
Pariah Dog
Patas Monkey
Peccary
Père David’s Deer
Phalanger
Pica
Pig
Pithecanthropus Erectus
Platypus
Pluto Monkey
Pocket-gopher
Pocket-mouse
Polecat
Pony
Porcupine
Porpoise
Potoroo
Potto
Pouched-mouse
Prairie-marmot
Primates
Proboscis-monkey
Prongbuck
Puma
Quagga
Rabbit
Raccoon
Raccoon-dog
Ram
Rat
Ratel
Reedbuck
Reindeer
Rhinoceros
Rhytina
River-hog
Rocky-Mountain Goat
Roebuck
Rorqual
Sable Antelope
Saiga
Saki
Seal
Serow
Serval
Sheep
Shrew
Sifaka
Sirenia
Skunk
Sloth
Snow-leopard
Souslik
Sperm-whale
Spider-monkey
Spiny Squirrel
Springbuck
Squirrel
Squirrel Monkey
Star-nosed Mole
Suricate
Swine
Tahr
Takin
Tapir
Tarsier
Tenrec
Thylacine
Tiger
Tiger-cat
Timber-Wolf
Tree Kangaroo
Tree-shrew
Udad, Aoudad, or Audad
Uakari
Vampire
Vervet
Vicugña
Viscacha
Vole
Wallaby
Walrus
Waltzing Mouse
Wanderu
Wart-hog
Waterbuck
Water-deer
Water-opossum
Weasel
Whale
Wolf
Wombat
Yak
Zebra
=Zoology, Natural History=: Birds
Albatross
Auk
Beccafico
Bird
Birds of Paradise
Bittern
Blackbird
Blackcock
Bullfinch
Bunting
Bustard
Buzzard
Canary
Capercally
Cassowary
Chaffinch
Cockatoo
Cock-of-the-Rock
Condor
Coot
Cormorant
Crane
Crossbill
Crow
Cuckoo
Curassow
Curlew
Diver
Dodo
Dove
Duck
Eagle
Eider
Emeu
Falcon
Fieldfare
Finch
Flamingo
Flycatcher
Fowl
Frigate-bird
Fulmar
Gadwall
Gannet
Gare-fowl
Garganey
Goatsucker
Godwit
Golden-eye
Goldfinch
Goose
Gos-hawk
Grackle
Grebe
Greenfinch
Greenshank
Grosbeak
Grouse
Guacharo
Guan
Guillemot
Guinea Fowl
Gull
Harpy
Harrier or Hen Harrier
Hawfinch
Hawk
Hen
Heron
Hoactzin, or Hoatzin
Honey-eater
Honey-guide
Hoopoe
Hornbill
Humming-bird
Ibis
Icterus
Jabiru
Jacamar
Jacaná
Jackdaw
Jay
Kakapo
Kestrel
Killdeer
King-bird
Kingfisher
Kinglet
Kite
Kiwi, or Kiwi-Kiwi
Knot
Lammergeyer
Lapwing
Lark
Linnet
Loom, or Loon
Lory
Love-bird
Lyre-bird
Macaw
Magpie
Mallemuck
Manakin
Manucode
Martin
Megapode
Merganser
Mew
Moa
Mocking-bird
Moor-hen
Morillon
Motmot
Mouse-bird
Nestor
Nightingale
Noddy
Nonpareil
Nutcracker
Nuthatch
Ocydrome
Oriole
Ornithology
Orthonyx
Ortolan
Osprey
Ostrich
Ousel, or Ouzel
Owl
Oyster-catcher
Parrot
Partridge
Peacock
Pelican
Penguin
Petrel
Pheasant
Pica
Pigeon
Pipit
Pitta
Plover
Pochard, Pockard, or Poker
Pratincole
Ptarmigan
Puff-bird
Puffin
Quail
Quezal, or Quesal
Rail
Raven
Razorbill
Redbreast, or Robin
Redshank
Redstart
Redwing
Rhea
Rifleman-bird
Roller
Rook
Ruff
Sand-grouse
Sandpiper
Scaup
Scoter
Screamer
Scrub-bird
Secretary-bird
Seriema, or Cariama
Shearwater
Sheathbill
Sheld-drake
Shoe-bill
Shoveler
Shrike
Siskin
Skimmer
Skua
Snake-bird
Snipe
Sparrow
Spoonbill
Starling
Stilt, or Long-legged Plover
Stork
Sugar-bird
Sun-bird
Sun-bittern
Swallow
Swan
Swift
Tanager-bird
Tapaculo
Teal
Tern
Thrush
Tinamou
Titmouse
Tody
Toucan
Touracou
Tree-creeper
Trogan
Tropic-bird
Trumpeter
Turkey
Turnstone
Vulture
Wagtail
Warbler
Waxwing
Weaver-bird
Wheatear
Whitethroat
Wigeon, or Widgeon
Woodchuck
Woodcock
Woodpecker
Wren
Wry-neck
Zosterops
=Zoology, Natural History=: Reptiles
Adder
Alligator
Alytes
Amphisbaena
Anaconda
Asp
Basilisk
Boa
Chameleon
Cobra
Cockatrice
Crocodile
Cryptobranchus
Dragon
Gecko
Iguana
Lizard
Proteus
Python
Rattlesnake
Reptiles
Sea-serpent
Snakes
Sphenodon
Tortoise
Viper
=Zoology, Natural History=: Fishes
Anchovy
Angler
Barbel
Beluga
Bitterling
Bleak
Bream
Brill
Burbot
Carp
Cat-fish
Char
Chub
Cichlid
Coal-fish
Cod
Dace, Dare, or Dart
Dog-fish
Dory, or John Dory
Eel
Electric Eel
File-fish and Trigger Fish
Flat-fish
Flounder
Fluke
Flying-fish
Gar-fish
Globe-fish
Goby
Goldfish
Goramy, or Gouramy
Grampus
Grayling
Gudgeon
Gurnard
Gwyniad
Haddock
Hag-fish
Hair-tail
Hake
Halibut
Hammer-Kop, or Hammerhead
Herring
Horse Mackerel
Ichthyology
Kipper
Lamprey
Ling
Loach
Lump-sucker
Mackerel
Mahseer, or Mahaseer
Menhaden
Miller’s Thumb
Minnow
Mormyr
Mullet
Muraena
Murray Cod
Narwhal
Opah
Parr
Parrot-fishes
Perch
Pike
Pike-perch
Pilchard
Pilot-fish
Pipe-fishes
Plaice
Pollack
Pollan
Pout
Ray
Ribbon-fishes
Roach
Rudd, or Red-eye
Salmon
Sand-Eel
Sea-horse
Sea-wolf
Shad
Shark
Sheepshead
Silverfish
Smelt
Sole
Sprat
Stickleback
Sturgeon
Sun-fish
Sword-fish
Tench
Trout
Tunny
Turbot
Vendace
Weever
Whitebait
Whitefish
Whiting
Wrasse
=Zoology, Natural History=: Batrachians
Axolotl
Batrachia
Frog
Newt
Salamander
Siren
Surinam Toad
Tadpole
Toad
Tree Frog
=Zoology, Natural History=: Insects
Acarus
Alder-fly
Ant
Ant Lion
Aphides
Bee
Beetle
Bird-louse
Bug
Butterfly and Moth
Caddis-fly and Caddis-worm
Caterpillar
Chafer
Cicada
Cochineal
Cockroach
Cricket
Cuckoo-spit
Death-watch
Dragon-fly
Earwig
Entomology
Fire Brat
Fire-fly
Flea
Fly
Glow-worm
Gnat
Grasshopper
Ground-pearl
Harvest-bug
Harvester
Hemimerus
Ichneumon-fly
Insect
Katydid
Lacewing-fly
Lantern-fly
Leaf-insect
Locust
Louse
Mantis
Mantis-fly
May-fly, or Ephemeridae
Mosquito
Moth
Palmer
Phylloxera
Saw-fly
Scale-insect
Scorpion-fly
Snake-fly
Springtail
Stick-insect
Stone-fly
Tarantula
Termite
Ticks
Tsetse-fly
Wasp
Water-boatman
Water-scorpion
Weevil
Wireworm
=Zoology, Natural History=: Other Invertebrata
Abalone
Asterid
Barnacle
Bêche-de-Mer, or Trepang
Book-scorpion
Centipede
Chiton
Cockle
Cowry
Crab
Crayfish
Cuttle Fish
Earthworm
King-crab
Leech
Lobster
Millipede
Mite
Mussel
Nautilus
Octopus
Oyster
Prawn
Scorpion
Sea-urchin
Shrimp
Snail
Spider
Starfish
Tapeworms
Teredo
Water-flea
Wood-louse
Worm
=Zoology, Palaeontology=
Amblypoda
Anclyopoda
Anthracotherium
Archaeopteryx
Arsinoïtherium
Creodonta
Dinotherium
Diplodocus
Dryopithecus
Ganodonta
Glyptodon
Graptolites
Ichthyosaurus
Iguanodon
Litopterna
Machaerodus
Mammoth
Mastodon
Megatherium
Multituberculata
Mylodon
Odontornithes
Oreodon
Ostracoderms, or Ostracophores
Palaeontology
Palaeospondylus
Palaeotherium
Phenacodus
Phorohacos
Plesiosaurus
Pterodactyles
Sparassodonta
Tillodontia
Titanotheriidae
Toxodontia
Trilobites
CHAPTER LX
PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY
[Sidenote: Definitions]
Philosophers, says Plato, are “those who are able to grasp the eternal
and immutable”; their pursuit is wisdom. The history of philosophy is,
therefore, the history of the ideas which have animated successive
generations of man; so that in the wide sense the investigation includes
all knowledge; the natural as well as the moral sciences; and the
Greeks, to whom the western world owes the direction of its thought, so
understood it. The several divisions of PHILOSOPHY (Vol. 21, p. 440), as
we reckon them, were all fused by Plato in a semi-religious synthesis,
with resulting confusion. Aristotle, the encyclopaedist of the ancient
world, saw that the several issues should be regarded as separate
disciplines, and became the founder of the sciences of logic,
psychology, ethics, and aesthetics. His “first philosophy,” or, as we
should say, “first principles,” which stood as introductions to his
separate special inquiries, gradually acquired the name metaphysics. In
more recent times the natural sciences: biology, physics, chemistry,
medicine, etc., have been regarded as outside the strict boundaries of
the philosophic schools; and theology, is excluded on the ground that
its subject matter is so extensive that it may be looked upon as a
separate science. The main divisions of philosophy are: EPISTEMOLOGY
(Vol. 9, p. 701), which is concerned with the nature and origin of
knowledge, i. e., the possibility of knowledge in the abstract;
METAPHYSICS (Vol. 18, p. 224), the science of being, often called
ONTOLOGY (Vol. 20, p. 118), dealing, that is to say, with being as
being; and PSYCHOLOGY (Vol. 22, p. 547), the science of mind, an
analysis of what “mind” means.
[Sidenote: Some Important Articles and Their Writers]
[Sidenote: Metaphysics and Logic]
It will be of interest to the reader if, at this point, we enumerate
some of the more important articles in the Britannica covering this
field with the names of their authors. Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison,
professor of logic and metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh, wrote
the general article PHILOSOPHY, which is a key to the whole subject, as
well as the articles MYSTICISM (Vol. 19, p. 123), SCEPTICISM (Vol. 24,
p. 306), SCHOLASTICISM (Vol. 24, p. 346), SPINOZA (Vol. 25, p. 687), and
others. Of fundamental importance is the article LOGIC (Vol. 16, p.
879), which would occupy 124 pages of this Guide. It is divided into two
parts: the first, by Thomas Case, president of Corpus Christi College,
Oxford, formerly professor of moral and metaphysical philosophy in that
university, treats of the science generally, and examines in detail the
processes of inference. The second, by H. W. Blunt, of Christ Church,
Oxford, and formerly fellow of All Soul’s, gives a brilliant account of
the _history_ of logic, that is, the history of the ideas which have
been the basis of all attempts to regulate these processes of inference.
This account is unique in that it is the first critical review of the
types of logical theory that has been attempted. A lucid discussion of a
most difficult subject is that given under METAPHYSICS (Vol. 18, p.
224); equivalent to 100 pages in this Guide by Professor Case, to whom,
as one of the most distinguished of modern Aristotelians, the article
ARISTOTLE (Vol. 2, p. 501) was also assigned. The life and work of PLATO
are examined in a valuable article (Vol. 21, p. 808), the equivalent in
length to 54 pages of this Guide, by the late Professor Lewis Campbell,
of St. Andrews, one of the best known Platonists of the time.
Henry Sturt, author of _Personal Idealism_ and many other books, is
responsible for brilliant discussions of UTILITARIANISM (Vol. 27, p.
820), NOMINALISM (Vol. 19, p. 735), METEMPSYCHOSIS (Vol. 18, p. 259),
SPACE AND TIME (Vol. 25, p. 525), etc. And F. C. S. Schiller, of Corpus
Christi College, Oxford, who, under the wider, and historically more
significant title “Humanism,” has further developed the pragmatic
philosophy of William James, contributed the articles on PRAGMATISM,
HERBERT SPENCER, and NIETZSCHE.
[Sidenote: Psychology]
The very important article on PSYCHOLOGY (Vol. 22, p. 54), equal to
nearly 200 pages of this Guide was contributed by James Ward, professor
of mental philosophy, Cambridge, who has devoted his whole life to
psychological research. In addition to PSYCHOLOGY he also contributed
the articles HERBART (Vol. 13, p. 335), and NATURALISM (Vol. 19, p.
274). James Sully, the well-known psychologist, former professor of the
philosophy of the mind and logic, at University College, London,
contributes the article AESTHETICS (Vol. 1, p. 277). The article ETHICS
(Vol. 8, p. 808), equivalent to about 100 pages of this Guide, and WILL
(Vol. 28, p. 648), both of primary importance, were the work of the Rev.
H. H. Williams, lecturer in philosophy, Hertford College, Oxford.
Very interesting articles are ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS (Vol. 2, p. 784),
DREAM (Vol. 8, p. 588), INSTINCT (Vol. 14, p. 648) and, very important,
WEBER’S LAW (Vol. 28, p. 458), which expresses the relation between
sensation and the stimulus which induces it.
Of recent years the psychology of crowds has received a good deal of
attention; in fact, the need of an understanding of the phenomena
attending it is of increasing importance in this age of universal
suffrage. Interesting light is thrown upon the subject in the articles
SUGGESTION (Vol. 26, p. 48), by W. M. McDougall, Wilde reader in mental
philosophy at Oxford; IMITATION (Vol. 14, p. 332); and RELIGION (Vol.
23, p. 66). A line of inquiry of vital importance to the social body is
examined in the articles CRIMINOLOGY (Vol. 7, p. 464), by Major
Griffith, for many years H. M. Inspector of Prisons, in which Lombroso’s
theory of the possession by criminals of special anatomical and
physiological characteristics is criticized, and the problem is shown to
be one of abnormal psychology; see also CESARE LOMBROSO (Vol. 16, p.
936). For discussions of other forms of abnormal psychology, see the
chapter _For Physicians and Surgeons_ in this Guide, and in particular
the article INSANITY (Vol. 14, p. 597).
[Sidenote: Psychical Research]
Perhaps more popular, certainly more sensational, than the more
legitimate branches of psychology, is that classed under PSYCHICAL
RESEARCH (Vol. 22, p. 544). The title article was written by Andrew
Lang, who wrote POLTERGEIST (Vol. 22, p. 14), as well as articles on
SECOND SIGHT (Vol. 24, p. 570), APPARITIONS (Vol. 2, p. 209), etc. The
article DIVINATION (Vol. 8, p. 332) was written by Northcote Thomas,
government anthropologist to Southern Nigeria, and author of _Thought
Transference_ and other books; and Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, formerly
principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, and secretary to the Society
for Psychical Research, was responsible for the article SPIRITUALISM
(Vol. 25, p. 705). Among the biographical articles in this section,
interest will be felt in the biography of Daniel Dunglas HOME, the
original of Robert Browning’s poem, “Sludge the Medium.”
[Sidenote: Classification]
We now may classify the principal subjects belonging to the main
divisions of philosophy, the sciences of epistemology, metaphysics, and
psychology. The wider phases of thought roughly belonging to the
division of metaphysics are, in their historical order: Platonism (see
PLATO, Vol. 21, p. 808), and Aristotelianism (see ARISTOTLE, Vol. 2, p.
501), the two great Greek systems of the classical period; NEOPLATONISM
(Vol. 19, p. 372), the last school of pagan philosophy, which grew up
mainly among the Greeks of Alexandria from the 3rd century A.D. onwards;
SCHOLASTICISM (Vol. 24, p. 346), which gave expression to the most
typical products of medieval thought; IDEALISM (Vol. 14, p. 281), the
philosophy of the “absolute,” which, though it has given a tinge to
philosophic thought from the days of Socrates to the present time, is in
its self-conscious form a modern doctrine; MATERIALISM (Vol. 17, p.
878), which regards all the facts of the universe as explainable in
terms of matter and motion; REALISM (Vol. 22, p. 941), which is a sort
of half-way house between Idealism and Materialism; PRAGMATISM (Vol. 22,
p. 246), the philosophy of the “real,” which expresses the reaction
against the intellectualistic speculation that has characterized most of
modern metaphysics. LOGIC (Vol. 16, p. 879), the art of reasoning, or,
as Ueberweg expresses it, “the science of the regulative laws of
thought,” clearly belongs to the division of epistemology. Aspects of
psychology, since they depend essentially upon perceptions of the human
mind in relation to itself or its environment, are ETHICS (Vol. 9, p.
808), or moral philosophy, the investigation of theories of good and
evil; and AESTHETICS (Vol. 1, p. 277), the philosophy or science of the
beautiful, of taste, or of the fine arts.
[Sidenote: History of Thought Personal]
The articles enumerated will give the reader a clear idea of the drift
of thought currents throughout the course of history, and they will
introduce him to the detailed discussions of the various systems which
have been propounded by the little band of men who have contributed
something vital to the treasury of thought. Each has been in and out of
fashion at different times. In the Britannica the contributions to
philosophic thought by the great philosophers are discussed in
biographical articles, to which we now turn.
[Sidenote: Breaking the Ground]
The father of Greek philosophy and indeed of European thought was THALES
of Miletus (Vol. 26, p. 720), who founded the IONIAN SCHOOL (Vol. 14, p.
731) at the end of the 7th century B.C. He first, as far as we know,
sought to go behind the infinite multiplicity of phenomena in the hope
of finding an all embracing infinite unity. This unity he decided was
water. HERACLITUS (Vol. 13, p. 309), the “dark philosopher,” nicknamed
from his aristocratic prejudices “he who rails at the people,” later
selected fire. The never ending fight between advocates of the “One” and
the “Many” had therefore begun. Sophistry (see SOPHISTS, Vol. 25, p.
418) has now an unpleasant connotation, inherited from the undisciplined
reasonings of the schools of which PROTAGORAS (Vol. 22, p. 464), GORGIAS
(Vol. 12, p. 257), PARMENIDES of Elea (Vol. 20, p. 851), and ZENO, also
of Elea (Vol. 28, p. 970), were leaders. The “science of the regulative
laws of thought” had not yet been developed and fallacies were the rule
rather than the exception. Protagoras, the first of the Sophists, in his
celebrated essay on Truth, said that “Man is the measure of all things,
of what is, that it is, and what is not, that it is not.” In other
words, there is no such thing as objective truth. After nineteen-hundred
years we are still seeking the answer to Pilate’s question, “What is
truth?” Gorgias, in his equally famous work on Nature or on the Nonent
(notbeing) maintained that “(a) nothing is, (b) that, if anything is, it
cannot be known, (c) that, if anything is and can be known, it cannot be
expressed in speech.” The paradoxes with which Zeno, the pupil and
friend of Parmenides, adorned his arguments are proverbial. Who has not
heard of Achilles and the tortoise? And it is a little curious that in
quite modern times his sophisms have, after centuries of scornful
neglect, been reinstated and made the basis of a mathematical
renaissance by the German professor Weierstrass, who shows that we live
in an unchanging world, and that the arrow, as Zeno paradoxically
contended, is truly at rest at every moment of its flight (Vol. 28, p.
971).
[Sidenote: The Socratic Schools]
The teaching of SOCRATES (Vol. 25, p. 331) was oral, and his philosophy
is handed down to us in the refined and elaborated system which PLATO
(Vol. 21, p. 808) developed in his dialogues. The “One” and the “Many”
were united in the philosophy of Plato. To him we owe a debt which is
simply incalculable, for, as is shown in the Britannica, “to whatever
system of modern thought the student is inclined he will find his
account in returning to this wellspring of European thought, in which
all previous movements are absorbed, and from which all subsequent lines
of reflection may be said to diverge.” The germs of all ideas, even of
most Christian ones, are, as Jowett remarked, to be found in Plato. The
teaching of Socrates bore fruit in strangely divers forms. Plato, his
legitimate successor, and the expounder of his philosophy, has been
referred to, but there were other very different developments. The
CYNICS (Vol. 7, p. 691), of whom DIOGENES (Vol. 8, p. 281) is the
notorious prototype, uncouthly preached the asceticism which was to
become so fashionable in a later era; but, their central doctrine, “let
man gain wisdom—or buy a rope,” contains more than a germ of truth. The
CYRENAICS (Vol. 7, p. 703), under ARISTIPPUS (Vol. 2, p. 497), starting
from the two Socratic principles of virtue and happiness, differed from
the Cynics in emphasizing the second. The MEGARIANS (Vol. 18, p. 77),
the “friends of ideas,” as Plato called them, united the Socratic
principles of virtue (as the source of knowledge) with the Eleatic
doctrine (Vol. 9, p. 168) of the “One” as opposed to the “Many.” Their
strength lay in the intellectual pre-eminence of their members, not so
much in the doctrine, or combination of doctrines, which they
inculcated.
[Sidenote: Aristotle]
Plato had done much, he had laid the foundation of modern thought; it
remained to classify it and to systematize it. This task was reserved
for ARISTOTLE (Vol. 2, p. 501), one of the greatest geniuses of any age.
He invented the sciences of logic, ethics, aesthetics, and psychology,
as separate sciences. He was at once a student, a reader, a lecturer, a
writer, and a book collector. He was the first man whom we know to have
collected books, and he was employed at one time by the kings of Egypt
as consulting librarian. His system of aesthetics still remains the best
foundation of the critic’s training. The fundamental difference between
Aristotle and Plato is that Platonism is a philosophy of universal
forms, and Aristotelianism one of individual substances. As Professor
Case puts it in the Britannica: “Plato makes us think first of the
supernatural and the kingdom of heaven, Aristotle of the natural and the
whole world.” His inquiries, therefore, pre-eminently implied that
“transvaluation of all values,” of which Nietzsche was to boast more
than two thousand years later. A contemporary of Aristotle, whose
philosophy occupies a somewhat independent position, is EPICURUS (Vol.
9, p. 683). His advice to a young disciple was to “steer clear of
culture.” His system, in fact, led him to go back from words to
realities in order to find in nature a more enduring and a wider
foundation for ethical doctrine; “to give up reasonings, and get at
feelings, to test conceptions and arguments by a final reference to the
only touchstone of truth—the senses.” A famous Roman who subscribed to
the doctrines of Epicurus was the poet-philosopher-scientist, LUCRETIUS
(Vol. 17, p. 107), whose theories in his poem _De Rerum Natura_ so
curiously anticipated much of modern physics and psychology.
[Sidenote: The Last Greek Schools]
Two schools remain to be considered before the Greek philosophy can be
dismissed: the STOICS (Vol. 25, p. 942) and the Neoplatonists (see
NEOPLATONISM, Vol. 19, p. 372). The Stoics caught the practical spirit
of the age which had been evoked by Aristotle and provided a popular
philosophy to meet individual needs. They showed kinship with the
Cynics, but under the inspiration of their founder, Zeno of Citium, they
avoided the excesses of that school, and formulated a system which fired
the imagination of the time and finally bequeathed to Rome the guiding
principles which were to raise her to greatness. Zeno is regarded as the
best exponent of anarchistic philosophy in ancient Greece, and he and
his philosophers opposed the conception of a free community without
government to the state-Utopia of Plato; see ANARCHISM (Vol. 1, p. 915).
Of Neoplatonism Adolph Harnack says in the Britannica (Vol. 19, p. 372):
Judged from the standpoint of empirical science, philosophy passed its
meridian in Plato and Aristotle, declined in the postAristotelian
systems, and set in the darkness of Neoplatonism. But, from the
religious and moral point of view, it must be admitted that the
ethical “mood” which Neoplatonism endeavored to create and maintain is
the highest and purest ever reached by antiquity.
The most famous exponents of this system were PLOTINUS (Vol. 21, p.
849), an introspective mystic, and PORPHYRY (Vol. 22, p. 103), who
edited Plotinus’s works and wrote his biography. Neoplatonism, coming as
it did early in our era, formed a link between the pagan philosophy of
ancient Greece and Christianity.
[Sidenote: Medieval Ecclesiasticism]
With the death of BOETIUS (Vol. 4, p. 116), in 524 A.D., and with the
closing of the philosophical schools in Athens five years later,
intellectual darkness settled over Europe and hung there for centuries.
When in the Middle Ages, the speculative sciences once again attracted
men’s minds, Christianity had already impressed its mark. SCHOLASTICISM
(Vol. 24, p. 346) as a system began with the teaching of SCOTUS ERIGENA
(Vol. 9, p. 742) at the end of the 9th century, and culminated three
centuries later with ALBERTUS MAGNUS (Vol. 1, p. 504), with his greater
disciple THOMAS AQUINAS (Vol. 2, p. 250), whose ideas have animated
orthodox philosophic thought in the Catholic Church to this day, and
with MEISTER ECKHART (Vol. 8, p. 886), the first of the great
speculative mystics (see MYSTICISM, Vol. 19, p. 123).
[Sidenote: Modern Ideas]
With the Reformation an assertion of independence made itself heard.
Man’s relation to man assumed an importance comparable to that of his
relation to God; and the first steps on the path which was to lead to
the rationalism of the French Encyclopaedists and of the English
Utilitarians were taken by Albericus GENTILIS (Vol. 11, p. 603), and
Hugo GROTIUS (Vol. 12, p. 621). In England, FRANCIS BACON (Vol. 3, p.
135) was independently working out the same problems. In philosophy his
position was that of a humanist. The remarkable success of Grotius’s
treatise _De Jure Belli et Pacis_ brought his views of natural right
into great prominence, and suggested such questions as: “What is man’s
ultimate reason for obeying laws? Wherein exactly does their agreement
with his rational and social nature exist? How far and in what sense is
his nature really social?” The answers which HOBBES (Vol. 13, p. 545),
who was considerably influenced by Bacon, gave to these fundamental
questions in his _Leviathan_ marked the starting point of independent
ethical inquiry in England. [Sidenote: The Utilitarians] From this time
on the drift of thought in England, though of course often profoundly
affected by the speculations of continental philosophers, mainly ran in
utilitarian channels; and the succession of ideas may be traced through
LOCKE (Vol. 16, p. 844), whose influence on the French Encyclopaedists
was far reaching, HUME (Vol. 13, p. 876), Jeremy BENTHAM (Vol. 3, p.
747) with his famous principle of the “greatest happiness for the
greatest number,” J. S. MILL (Vol. 18, p. 454), and Herbert SPENCER
(Vol. 24, p. 634), with his philosophy of the “unknowable.”
[Sidenote: Back to Dreams]
Meanwhile, on the continent of Europe, DESCARTES (Vol. 7, p. 79), in the
_Discourse of Method_, had stated his famous proposition “_Cogito, ergo
sum_,” and had laid down those fundamental dogmas of logic, metaphysics,
and physics, from which started the subsequent inquiries of LOCKE,
LEIBNITZ (Vol. 16, p. 385), and NEWTON (Vol. 19, p. 583). But
CARTESIANISM (Vol. 5, p. 414), as Dr. Caird points out in the
Britannica, includes not only the work of Descartes, but also that of
MALEBRANCHE (Vol. 17, p. 486) and of SPINOZA (Vol. 25, p. 687), who,
from very different points of view, developed the Cartesian theories,
the former saturated with the study of Augustine, the latter with that
of Jewish philosophy.
[Sidenote: The Rights of Man]
There follows a group of men whose speculations left a deep mark on the
course of events in Europe and America: VOLTAIRE (Vol. 28, p. 199),
MONTESQUIEU (Vol. 18, p. 775), Jean Jacques ROUSSEAU (Vol. 23, p. 775),
and Denis DIDEROT (Vol. 8, p. 204). The antiecclesiastical animus which
informed the writings of the first, the _Esprit des Lois_ of the second,
the _Contrat Social_ of the third, and the famous encyclopaedia of the
last, had political results, but their influence on metaphysical inquiry
was practically nil.
[Sidenote: Transcendentalism]
Outstanding, of course, in the 18th century was the influence of
Immanuel KANT (Vol. 15, p. 662), who summed up the teachings of Leibnitz
and Hume, carried them to their logical issues, and immensely extended
them. In fact, Kant and his disciple FICHTE (Vol. 10, p. 313), as Prof.
Case shows in the article METAPHYSICS (Vol. 18, p. 231), “became the
most potent philosophic influences on European thought in the 19th
century, because their emphasis was on man.” They made man believe in
himself and in his mission. They fostered liberty and reform, and even
radicalism. They almost avenged man on the astronomers, who had shown
that the world is not made for earth, and therefore not for man. Kant
half asserted, and Fichte wholly, that Nature is man’s own construction.
The _Kritik_ and the _Wissenschaftslehre_ belonged to the revolutionary
epoch of the “Rights of Man,” and produced as great a revolution in
thought as the French Revolution did in fact. Instead of the old belief
that God made the world for man, philosophers began to fall into the
pleasing dream “I am everything, and everything is I”—and even “I am
God.” The term TRANSCENDENTALISM (Vol. 27, p. 172) has been specially
applied to the philosophy of Kant and his successors, which is based on
the view that true knowledge is intuitive, or supernatural. The famous
Transcendental Club founded, 1836, by EMERSON (Vol. 9, p. 332) and
others in New England, was not “transcendental” in the Kantian sense;
its main theme was regeneration, a revolt from theological formalism,
and a wider literary outlook; see also BROOK FARM (Vol. 4, p. 645),
THOREAU (Vol. 26, p. 877), A. BRONSON ALCOTT (Vol. 1, p. 528), and
MARGARET FULLER (Vol. 11, p. 295).
[Sidenote: Idealism]
SCHELLING’S position (Vol. 24, p. 316), like that of his disciple HEGEL
(Vol. 13, p. 200), differed from the transcendentalism of Kant and
Fichte in regarding all noumena, or things comprehended (Vol. 19, p.
828), as knowable products of universal reason—the Absolute Ego, and,
the absolute being God, nature as a product of universal reason, “a
direct manifestation not of man but of God.” This was the starting point
of noumenal idealism in Germany, and showed a reversion to the wider
opinions of Aristotle. Hegelianism in which this idealism is carried to
its limit is professedly one of the most difficult of philosophies.
Hegel said “One man has understood me and even he has not.” His
obscurity lies in the manner in which, as William Wallace shows in his
article on the philosopher (Vol. 13, p. 204), he “abruptly hurls us into
worlds where old habits of thought fail us.” The influence of Hegel on
English thought has been wide and lasting.
[Sidenote: Realism]
SCHOPENHAUER (Vol. 24, p. 372) was essentially a realist. He led the
inevitable reaction against the absorption of everything in reason which
is the keynote of the Kantian system. In the very title of his chief
work, _The World as Will and Idea_, he emphasizes his position in giving
“will” equal weight with “mind” or “idea” (_Vorstellung_). His “Will to
Live” embodies a wholesome practical idea. Eduard von HARTMANN (Vol. 13,
p. 36) in his sensational _Philosophy of the Unconscious_ established
the thesis: “When the greater part of the Will in existence is so far
enlightened by reason as to perceive the inevitable misery of existence,
a collective effort to will non-existence will be made, and the world
will relapse into nothingness, the Unconscious into quiescence.” He thus
goes a step further in pessimism than did Schopenhauer, and the essence
of his doctrine is the will to non-existence—_not_ to live, instead of a
will to live. German realism is, however, so strongly coloured by the
idealistic cast of the national thought that we have to go to France and
England for the most thorough-going statement of the realist position.
In France the eclecticism of V. COUSIN (Vol. 7, p. 330) marked a
doctrine of comprehension and toleration, opposed to the arrogance of
absolutism and to the dogmatism of sensationalism which were the
tendencies of his day. In England a reversion to Baconian ideas produced
the natural or intuitive realism of REID (Vol. 23, p. 51), DUGALD
STEWART (Vol. 25, p. 913), SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON (Vol. 12, p. 888) and
their followers, and led to the synthetic philosophy of HERBERT SPENCER
(Vol. 25, p. 634).
[Sidenote: Materialism]
The materialists go a step further than the realists. In its modern
sense materialism is the view that all we know is body (or matter), of
which the mind is an attribute or function. This attitude was induced by
the rapid advances of the natural sciences, and by the unifying doctrine
of gradual evolution in nature. It was also heralded by a remarkable
growth in commerce, manufactures, and industrialism. The leaders of the
movement were BÜCHNER (Vol. 4, p. 719) whose _Kraft und Stoff_ became a
text book of materialism, and HAECKEL (Vol. 12, p. 803) who in his
_Riddle of the Universe_ asserts that, sensations being an inherent
property of all substance, neither mind nor soul can have an origin.
[Sidenote: The 19th Century and Beyond]
In the inquiries of LOTZE (Vol. 17, p. 23), and FECHNER (Vol. 10, p.
231), the latter an experimental psychologist, lies the germ of much of
the speculative thought of the present day. Lotze, as the well-known
psychologist Henry Sturt says in his article in the Britannica (Vol. 17,
p. 25), “brought philosophy out of the lecture room into the market
place of life.” He saw that metaphysics must be the foundation of
psychology, and that the current idealist theories of the origin of
knowledge were unsound; and he concluded that the union of the regions
of facts, of laws, and of standards of values, can only become
intelligible through the idea of a personal deity. Like a brilliant
meteor NIETZSCHE (Vol. 19, p. 672) flashed across the philosophic sky.
His theories of the super-man are known to everyone. His brilliant
essays are all in the nature of prolegomena to a philosophy which,
embodied in a master work, the “Will to Power,” was to contain a
transvaluation of all existing ethical values. Unfortunately he did not
live to complete the work, which remains a fragment; but the drift of
his thought is clearly indicated. One other system should be mentioned,
that of POSITIVISM (Vol. 22, p. 172), which its founder, AUGUSTE COMTE
(Vol. 6, p. 814) hoped would supersede every other system. Comte’s
philosophy confines itself to the data of experience and declines to
recognise a priori or metaphysical speculations. The system of morality
which he built up on it, and in which God is replaced by Humanity, has
largely failed, in spite of the brilliant ideas which animate it,
because it is in many of its aspects retrograde. A most interesting
review of present day tendencies in the regions of Metaphysics will be
found at the end of that article, with special reference to the
brilliant work of WUNDT (see also Vol. 28, p. 855), who constructing his
system on the Kantian order—sense, understanding, reason, exhibits most
clearly the necessary consequence from psychological to metaphysical
idealism. His philosophy is the best exposition of modern idealism—that
we perceive the mental and, therefore, all we know and conceive is
mental.
[Sidenote: The Historical Clue]
This sketch of the course of events in philosophical speculation will at
least enable the reader to follow the historical clue to the evolution
of ideas. Every student must, in order to attain a true perspective,
know the _genealogy_ of the ideas he is studying. It will therefore be
best that he first read the general articles referred to in the
beginning of this chapter, supplementing them by the accounts given of
the separate systems under the headings of their authors.
A list of the philosophical and psychological articles (more than 500 in
number) in the Britannica will be found in the Index (Vol. 29, p. 939)
and it is not repeated here.
PART III
DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF CHILDREN
CHAPTER LXI
FOR PARENTS
[Sidenote: The Science of Rearing Children]
The new Encyclopaedia Britannica is full of encouragement for parents
who are tempted to feel that the proper care and training of a child
require almost superhuman skill and energy. Many of the fears and doubts
by which they are beset rest upon vague traditions, handed down from a
day when a child’s health was threatened by more dangers and greater
dangers than now, and when much less was known than is known to-day
about the training of a child. Statistics are dull things, as a rule,
but it would be difficult to find pleasanter reading than the
statistical tables which show how much the modern progress of science
has done for children. And these figures, in many Britannica articles on
various diseases and localities, by showing how much safer children’s
lives are than they used to be, also indicate a _decrease of children’s
suffering_ and an _increase of children’s happiness_ which cannot be
expressed in numbers. Sheer ignorance caused much of the pain that
children used to suffer and also much of the neglect that led to bodily
and mental deficiency in later life. There is still room for
improvement; but it is no exaggeration to say that the child of the
average American mechanic is more intelligently cared for than was, a
hundred years ago, the heir to a European kingdom.
Every branch of science has contributed to these improved conditions.
Medical and surgical research have no doubt been the great factors, as
disease and deformity were the worst evils; but the child’s mind has
been as carefully studied as its body. Here, again, figures cannot tell
the whole story. They can show the universal benefits of our public
school system, but they cannot show how greatly the children of
well-read and thoughtful parents benefit by home influences
intelligently exerted. That element of education begins as soon as a
child is born, and it is based upon such observation of its individual
needs as only a parent’s affection and sympathy can achieve. And in this
part of the parent’s task, as in the case of the child’s health, it is
essential to be guided by specialists of the highest authority, such as
those who wrote for the Britannica the articles of which a brief account
is given in this chapter.
The child’s individuality, physical and mental, is largely inherited.
[Sidenote: What is Known about Heredity]
The vast subject of heredity has indeed not yet been reduced to an exact
science, but the newest theories advanced by Weismann, Hertwig, and
others, with such confirmation as has already been obtained, are clearly
set forth in Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell’s article HEREDITY (Vol. 13, p.
350). As for our knowledge of the physiological process of heredity, the
foundation may be said to have been laid by the labours of the Austrian
monk Mendel, and biologists are rapidly extending his work in various
directions. What has been done in the past thirteen years since
scientists rediscovered Mendel’s work is described in MENDELISM (Vol.
18, p. 115), by R. C. Punnett, professor of biology, Cambridge
University. There is no subject of greater interest or fascination
before the world to-day, and there is no better or simpler introduction
to it than Professor Punnett’s able article. As he says, “Increased
knowledge of our heredity means increased power of control over the
living thing.” We know very little as yet, but that little “offers the
hope of a great extension at no very distant time. If this hope is borne
out, if it is shown that the qualities of man, his body and his
intellect, his immunities and his diseases, even his very virtues and
vices, are dependent upon the ascertainable presence or absence of
definite unit-characters whose mode of transmission follows fixed laws,
and if also man decides that his life shall be ordered in the light of
this knowledge, it is obvious that the social system will have to
undergo considerable changes.”
The relations between parent and offspring are also dealt with in
REPRODUCTION (Vol. 23, p. 116), by Dr. Mitchell; and those who wish to
study the development of the organism will find such information in
EMBRYOLOGY (Vol. 9, p. 314), by Adam Sedgwick, who is professor of
zoology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. This
masterly account is supplemented by a section (p. 329) on the
_Physiology of Development_ by Dr. Hans A. E. Driesch, of Heidelberg
University.
[Sidenote: The New-Born Child]
The article INFANCY (Vol. 14, p. 513), by Dr. Harriet Hennessy, is
devoted to the care of the child during its first year. The first bath,
care of the eyes, clothing, increase of weight, etc., are thoroughly
discussed, and the directions for artificial feeding contain tables of
milk-dilution and of the amounts to be given. In CHILD (Vol. 6, p. 136)
will be found a valuable table of average heights and weights of
children from the ages of one to fifteen, and a full bibliography of
works relating to child-study.
The main points to be considered for each sex in the difficult period
between childhood and maturity are concisely set forth in ADOLESCENCE
(Vol. 1, p. 210). An ideal system of child raising is outlined, dealing
with hygiene, clothing, and moral and physical training. See also
GYMNASTICS AND GYMNASIUM (Vol. 12, p. 752), by R. J. McNeill.
[Sidenote: The Vital Question of Food]
Parents must have a thorough and clear understanding of the question of
bodily nourishment. This is most imperative. It means sound bodies for
the children, their good health in after years, their efficiency and
success in life. On this point the new Britannica provides information
of a character that for authoritativeness and completeness can nowhere
else be matched.
The important matter of feeding a family is treated at great length in
DIETETICS (Vol. 8, p. 214), by the late Prof. W. O. Atwater of Wesleyan
University, known the world over as an authority on this subject, and R.
D. Milner, formerly assistant in the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
The article gives information as to the composition and nutritive values
of foods and their adaptation to the use of people in health. There are
tables of food composition, of the digestibility of nutrients, of the
quantities of available nutrients, etc. The hygienic and pecuniary
economy of food are discussed in such a way as to be of real service.
For those who desire further information on the subject of food
assimilation reference may be made to NUTRITION (Vol. 19, p. 920), by
Dr. D. Noel Paton, professor of physiology, University of Glasgow, and
Dr. E. P. Cathcart, lecturer in chemical physiology in the same
institution.
[Sidenote: Maintenance of Health]
In regard to the maintenance of general health of children without
reference to specific ailments there is a vast fund of information to be
extracted by consulting the new Britannica. The titles of a few of the
articles will sufficiently indicate information to which every parent
should have constant access: ANTISEPTICS (Vol. 2, p. 146); DISINFECTANTS
(Vol. 8, p. 312); CARBOLIC ACID, _Pharmacology and Therapeutics_, (Vol.
5, p. 305); SALICYLIC ACID, _Medicine and Therapeutics_ (Vol. 24, p.
70); EMETICS (Vol. 9, p. 336); ACONITE, _Therapeutics_ (Vol. 1, p. 152);
COLCHICUM, _Pharmacology_ (Vol. 6, p. 662); PHENACETIN (Vol. 21, p.
363); PEPSIN (Vol. 21, p. 130); RHUBARB (Vol. 23, p. 273); SENNA (Vol.
24, p. 646); POISON, with list of poisons and antidotes (Vol. 21, p.
893); HAEMORRHAGE, how to tell the different kinds (Vol. 12, p. 805);
WOUND, nature of bruises and treatment (Vol. 28, p. 837); BURNS AND
SCALDS (Vol. 4, p. 860); SUNSTROKE, nature of heat prostration (Vol. 26,
p. 110); nature and treatment of frost-bite, MORTIFICATION (Vol. 18, p.
878); ULCER (Vol. 27, p. 565); CHILBLAINS (Vol. 6, p. 134); ECZEMA (Vol.
8 p. 920); relief from choking, OESOPHAGUS (Vol. 20, p. 14); BONE,
_Fractures_, special fractures in the young (Vol. 4, p. 201); DROWNING
AND LIFE SAVING (Vol. 8, p. 592); SLEEP, amount of sleep necessary at
different ages (Vol. 25, p. 238); DISEASES OF VISION (Vol. 28, p. 142);
with its special section (p. 144) on the care of the eyesight of
children; BLINDNESS, _Causes and Prevention_ (Vol. 4, p. 60), by Sir F.
J. Campbell, principal, Royal Normal College for the Blind, London;
SHOCK, injuries and accidents (Vol. 24, p. 991). There is a section on
_Action of Baths on the Human System_, in BATHS AND BATHING (Vol. 3, p.
518), telling of the effects of cold, tepid, warm, hot, and very hot
baths.
Parents will be most grateful to the Britannica for the complete
descriptions of infantile diseases, dealing with symptoms and principles
of cure and treatment.
[Sidenote: Treatment of Infantile Diseases]
_The British Medical Journal_ commenting on the nature of the medical
section of the new Britannica has said that it is “an admirable example
of the kind of exposition which will enable the head of a family,
without embarrassing him with technical details, to deal with a
situation with which he may be confronted at any moment.” Realizing the
great necessity for a popular yet authentic discussion of diseases, the
editors have produced a work which has received the highest approval of
the medical world for its quality of practical usefulness.
In the first place, parents should devote much study to Sir T. Lauder
Brunton’s most clear and able discussion of THERAPEUTICS (Vol. 26, p.
793), dealing in a general manner with the means employed to treat
disease. Here we learn about the action of microbes, the nature of
inflammation and fever (which are protective processes calculated to
defend the organism against the attacks of microbes but which often
become injurious), about defensive measures and principles of cure,
proper nutrition and elimination, flatulence, constipation, etc. It is
also important to know something about the action of drugs, and this is
fully explained in PHARMACOLOGY (Vol. 21, p. 350), by Dr. Ralph
Stockman, of Glasgow University, while Dr. H. L. Hennessy in the same
article (p. 352) explains the terms used in the classification of drugs.
Before describing the material devoted to the special diseases of
children, it is well to remind parents of a valuable illustrated article
on PARASITIC DISEASES (Vol. 20, p. 770), by Dr. G. Sims Woodhead,
professor of pathology in Cambridge University. It is about the length
of 52 pages in this Guide. The information as to the origin of various
diseases, of those which are due to vegetable and those due to animal
parasites, of the infective diseases in which no organism yet discovered
has surely been connected with the malady (as is the case with scarlet
fever), and of infective diseases, such as measles, mumps, and
whooping-cough, not yet traced to microorganisms, will prove of the
highest interest because the facts related have a most important
influence upon present methods of treatment.
[Sidenote: Diseases most Common to Childhood]
CROUP (Vol. 7, p. 511) is a concise account of spasmodic croup—so
terrifying to all parents. The treatment is carefully described. The
same is true of TONSILLITIS (Vol. 27, p. 11). For other common throat
diseases see BRONCHITIS (Vol. 4, p. 634); RESPIRATORY SYSTEM, _Pathology
of_ (Vol. 23, p. 195) by Dr. Thomas Harris, a noted authority, and Dr.
Harriet Hennessy, and LARYNGITIS (Vol. 16, p. 228), which fully
describes the paroxysmal laryngitis so peculiarly fatal to infants. In
all these articles reference is made to adenoids as a contributing cause
of the maladies described. There is a separate account of these recently
discovered troublesome growths, ADENOIDS (Vol. 1, p. 191), and of the
comparatively simple operation for their removal, by Dr. Edmund Owen,
consulting surgeon to the Children’s Hospital, London.
The great attention which, in recent years, has been paid to DIPHTHERIA
(Vol. 8, p. 290) has produced most striking results. We know its cause
and nature, we understand the conditions which influence its prevalence;
and a “specific” cure in an antitoxin has been found. Specialists now
trace to diphtheria many of the serious cases which would formerly have
been thought due to other diseases, and especially to croup.
WHOOPING COUGH (Vol. 28, p. 616) is one of the most common diseases of
infancy, but, except in the most extreme cases, does not require the
regular attendance of a physician. The malady has three recognized
stages, in the second of which complications are apt to arise which may
become a source of danger greater than the malady itself. Parents should
also understand the curious structural changes in the lungs which
sometimes remain after the disease has run its course.
Of all the diseases of earlier childhood, MEASLES (Vol. 17, p. 947) is
the most prevalent, and its spread is largely due to the fact that its
initial symptoms are slight and not easily recognizable. The proper
understanding of these is, therefore, most necessary, as well as a
thorough appreciation of possible complications and their consequences.
The best mode of treatment is also indicated in this article. There are
several well-marked varieties of SCARLET FEVER (Vol. 24, p. 303) of
which the chief are simple scarlatina, septic scarlatina, and malignant
scarlatina; and the complications and effects of the disease are among
the most important features which should be understood. The list of
infantile diseases is too long for specific description, but parents can
appreciate the value and significance of this valuable department of the
work by referring to such articles as MUMPS (Vol. 18, p. 968); DYSENTERY
(Vol. 8, p. 785); CHOLERA (Vol. 6, p. 262), with a special section on
children’s simple cholera; see also DIGESTIVE ORGANS, _General and Local
Diseases_ (Vol. 8, p. 262) by Dr. A. L. Gillespie, lecturer on modern
gastric methods, Edinburgh Post-Graduate School, and MENINGITIS,
_Cerebro-Spinal_ (Vol. 18, p. 130), with an account of the new and
successful serum treatment.
[Sidenote: Mental Training]
In planning the groundwork of education, parents should have a clear
idea of the principles of modern instruction. Here the Britannica again
comes to their assistance. The biographies of PESTALOZZI (Vol. 21, p.
284) and of FROEBEL (Vol. 11, p. 238) describe the insistence of these
leaders on the need of educating a child through his own activity, and
the results they obtained by this method. Further elaboration of the
subject is given in EDUCATION, _Theory_ (Vol. 8, p. 951), by James
Welton, professor of education in the University of Leeds, to which
article there are added detailed accounts of national systems of
education. An interesting supplementary article is SCHOOLS (Vol. 24, p.
359), by A. F. Leach, describing the stages of experiment by which our
modern idea of a school has been developed. There is an admirably
instructive article, TECHNICAL EDUCATION (Vol. 26, p. 487), by Sir
Philip Magnus, formerly member of the Royal Commission of Technical
Instruction.
[Sidenote: Assistance at Home in School Education]
The new Britannica performs a service of the greatest importance in
responding to the opening mind of the child. Children are the greatest
of question askers, and the Britannica is the best question answerer
ever devised. They want to know about the races of men, the different
animals and plants they see; in fact, almost every object that comes
under their observation. The inestimable advantage of answering an
inquiry fully and correctly and not in an offhand manner is too obvious
to need mention. _Let your young children see you go to your Britannica
for information and as soon as they are old enough they will naturally
do the same, and then the volumes will be performing their most
efficient work in the household._
For helping children with their school “themes” and “compositions,” for
elucidation or amplification of any topic that comes up in the course of
their studies, there is no medium so useful as the new Britannica—the
most exhaustive compendium of knowledge which has ever been devised,
with its elaborate index of 500,000 alphabetical references, giving
instant access to every fact in the whole work. Of equal assistance will
be its employment in connection with Sunday School lessons; for the
accounts of the Bible and its separate books, giving the latest results
of Biblical criticism, are the product of the highest learning of the
age.
[Sidenote: The World of Nature]
For the instruction of children about the history of mankind, the nature
of the universe, the animal, plant, and mineral world, the new
Britannica offers a complete fund of necessary knowledge. There are 277
astronomical articles, including biographies; 889 zoological articles;
675 on plants; 380 on minerals and rocks. The classified subject-list in
the Index Volume places the whole of this material immediately before
the eye.
The articles ANTHROPOLOGY (Vol. 2, p. 108), by Dr. Edward B. Tylor of
Oxford University, dean of living anthropologists, and ETHNOLOGY AND
ETHNOGRAPHY (Vol. 9, p. 849) describe the races of mankind, man’s place
in nature, the origin of man, and his antiquity. The main article
ZOOLOGY (Vol. 28, p. 1022), by Sir Edwin Ray Lankester, of London
University, is an introduction to knowledge of the whole of the animal
world, which is amplified, with minute details, in separate accounts of
all members of the animal kingdom. ZOOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION (Vol. 28, p.
1002), by the noted naturalist, Richard Lydekker, is a mine of
information about the distribution of living animals and their
forerunners on the surface of the globe. Articles of great importance
are BOTANY (Vol. 4, p. 299), by Dr. A. B. Rendle of the British Museum,
and the great article PLANTS (Vol. 21, p. 728), in the various sections
of which the whole story of the vegetable world is told by eight famous
specialists. There are, of course, separate articles on all plants. We
also recommend to parents a careful study of the section (Vol. 23, p.
120) of REPRODUCTION, _Reproduction of Plants_, by Dr. S. H. Vines, and
POLLINATION (Vol. 22, p. 2), from which they can give their children
much necessary instruction. Such a course is now strongly advised by
educators and authorities in child-study as the best method of preparing
the mind for a healthy, sane knowledge of sex matters in later years.
[Sidenote: What Happens on the Earth and in the Air]
All the facts about the earth’s surface will be found in GEOGRAPHY, in
the section _Principles of Geography_ (Vol. 11, p. 630), by Dr. H. R.
Mill, formerly president of the Royal Meteorological Society; and see
also OCEAN AND OCEANOGRAPHY (Vol. 19, p. 967), by Dr. Otto Krümmel,
professor of geography, University of Kiel, and Dr. H. R. Mill.
Everything about the weather, storms, etc., may be learned from
METEOROLOGY (Vol. 18, p. 264), by Dr. Cleveland Abbe, professor of
meteorology in the U. S. Weather Bureau; and from ATMOSPHERIC
ELECTRICITY (Vol. 2, p. 860), by Dr. Charles Chree of the National
Physical Laboratory, England.
Clouds always appeal strongly to a child’s imagination. The article
CLOUD (Vol. 6, p. 557), by A. W. Clayden, author of _Cloud Studies_, has
beautiful illustrations of cloud forms, with explanations.
Lord Rayleigh, a winner of the Nobel prize and one of the most
distinguished of living scientists, in the article SKY (Vol. 25, p. 202)
explains why the blue of the sky varies as it does.
Parents will find a great deal to tell their children about phenomena of
nature in such articles as EARTHQUAKE (Vol. 8, p. 817), by F. W. Rudler,
formerly president of the Geologists’ Association, England, and Dr. John
Milne, author of _Earthquakes_; and VOLCANO (Vol. 28, p. 178), by F. W.
Rudler. Glaciers and their effects are described in GLACIER (Vol. 12, p.
60), by E. C. Spicer.
In teaching rudimentary things about the heavens, it is well to note
that CONSTELLATION (Vol. 7, p. 11), by Charles Everitt, contains
star-maps by which the positions may easily be recognized. After reading
STAR (Vol. 25, p. 784), by A. S. Eddington, of the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich, many wonders of the heavens about the number of the stars,
their distances, the variable and double stars, etc., may be told the
child. The same is true of the articles PLANET (Vol. 21, p. 714), by Dr.
Simon Newcomb, director of the American Nautical Almanac and professor
of mathematics in the Navy, and of the separate accounts of all the
different planets; COMET (Vol. 6, p. 759), by Dr. Newcomb; and NEBULA
(Vol. 19, p. 332), by A. S. Eddington, etc. These are all very fully
illustrated. Ideas as to the structure of the universe, the origin of
the solar system, etc., will be found in NEBULAR THEORY (Vol. 19, p.
333), by Sir Robert S. Ball, professor of astronomy, Cambridge
University.
[Sidenote: The Training of the Hand]
A great many children show a liking for the mechanical arts and are
curious about processes of manufacture. Parents will find in the new
Britannica complete information about the marvelous things ingenious
machines do and how they do them; for example, SPINNING (Vol. 25, p.
685), by T. W. Fox, professor of textiles in the University of
Manchester; COTTON-SPINNING MACHINERY (Vol. 7, p. 301), also by
Professor Fox; WEAVING (Vol. 28, p. 440), by Professor Fox, with
illustrations; HOSIERY (Vol. 13, p. 788), by Thomas Brown, of the
Incorporated Weaving, Dyeing and Printing College, Glasgow; CARPET (Vol.
5, p. 392), by A. S. Cole, assistant secretary for art, Board of
Education, England; SILK (Vol. 25, p. 96), by Frank Warner, president of
the Silk Association of Great Britain and Ireland; Richard Snow,
examiner in silk throwing and spinning for the City and Guilds of London
Institute, and Arthur Mellor; FLOUR AND FLOUR MANUFACTURE (Vol. 10, p.
548), by G. F. Zimmer, author of _Mechanical Handling of Material_; ROPE
AND ROPE MAKING (Vol. 23, p. 713), by Thomas Woodhouse, head of the
weaving and textile department, Technical College, Dundee; SUGAR, _Sugar
Manufacture_ (Vol. 26, p. 35), by A. Chapman, designer and constructor
of sugar machinery, and Valentine W. Chapman.
[Sidenote: The Foundation of Good Taste]
An important service to education is rendered by the Britannica in the
way that it supplements and extends education received in the school.
There, far too often children learn little or nothing of the world of
art, of the beautiful creations of the human intellect by means of
which, even before the dawn of history, men attempted to express in
concrete form their sense of beauty. It is surely most desirable for
children to have an idea, at least, of principles and styles of
architecture; of ancient and modern painting and sculpture—to know the
chief characteristics of schools of art; to have a little knowledge of
musical forms, of what a symphony, a concerto, a sonata, an opera, are;
to be able to recognize a piece of Dresden, Sèvres, Italian faience,
Copenhagen, or Wedgwood ware when they see it; to know the different
periods and styles of furniture; to tell Bohemian from Venetian glass;
to be familiar with lovely textiles and fabrics and to appreciate their
true value. Such knowledge is the foundation of good taste. It serves to
arouse appreciation of, and respect for, the objects with which a child
is surrounded, and leads to delightful interests, recreations and
occupations in later years. There are few better and more constant uses
to which the Britannica can be put than the systematic education of
children in matters of general culture and refined taste.
[Sidenote: Knowledge of the Fine Arts]
A list of articles to serve this purpose would be too long to give here.
They are easily found by means of other chapters in this Guide. But
special mention may be made of ARCHITECTURE (Vol. 2, p. 369), by R.
Phené Spiers, master of the architectural school, Royal Academy, London,
by John Bilson, of the University of Manchester, and others; PAINTING
(Vol. 20, p. 459), by Prof. G. B. Brown of Edinburgh University; L.
Bénédite, keeper of the Luxembourg Gallery, Paris; Richard Muther,
professor of modern art, Breslau University; and John C. Van Dyke,
professor of history of art, Rutgers College; SCULPTURE (Vol. 24 p.
488), by Marion H. Spielmann, formerly editor, _Magazine of Art_, P. G.
Konody, art critic of the _Observer_, L. Bénédite, and Dr. J. H.
Middleton, Slade professor of fine art, Cambridge University; CERAMICS
(Vol. 5, p. 703), by Hon. William Burton, chairman, Joint Committee of
Pottery Manufacturers of Great Britain, R. L. Hobson of the British
Museum, and other authorities; GLASS (Vol. 12, p. 86), by Alexander
Nesbitt, H. J. Powell, author of _Glass Making_, and Dr. W. Rosenhain of
the National Physical Laboratory, England; LACE (Vol. 16, p. 37), by A.
S. Cole, author of _Embroidery and Lace_; FURNITURE (Vol. 11, p. 363),
by J. Penderel-Brodhurst. All of these articles are superbly
illustrated, and this feature alone would give them a direct educational
value for young people.
[Sidenote: The Best Picture-Book in the World]
In fact, the new Britannica may be said to be the greatest and most
varied picture book in existence. There are 7,000 text illustrations and
450 full-page plates. This suggests at once a special use for the work
in making children familiar, by purely pictorial means, with objects
they should learn to recognize. When a child asks for a description of
some object whose name has aroused his curiosity, it is safe to say that
an accurate picture of it will be found in the new Britannica. Suppose
that he has heard of a dirigible balloon and wants to know how it
differs from the ordinary balloon which he has seen. The index will
guide his instructor to the article AERONAUTICS (Vol. 1, p. 260), with
two full-page plates of dirigible balloons. A child can learn to
distinguish the breeds of domestic animals from the illustrations alone.
Thirst for mechanical knowledge may be satisfied by such articles as
STEAM ENGINE (Vol. 25, p. 818), with about 70 illustrations, by Prof. J.
A. Ewing, of Cambridge University; WATCH (Vol. 28, p. 362), by Lord
Grimthorpe and Sir H. H. Cunynghame; LIGHTHOUSE (Vol. 16, p. 627), by W.
T. Douglass and N. G. Gedye; TELEPHONE (Vol. 26, p. 547), by Emile
Garcke; and LOCK (Vol. 16, p. 841), by A. B. Chatwood—all fully
illustrated.
[Sidenote: Sport and Recreation]
The new Britannica is an exhaustive and practical compendium of sports,
games, and recreations of all kinds. Part 6 of this Guide contains a
survey of this department in the book. There are over 260 articles on
sports and games alone, and they describe clearly how each is played,
and also give expert advice. There is also much that is extremely
interesting in the historical development of pastimes, a knowledge of
which heightens the interest and pleasure of those who participate in
them; and parents can be of real assistance to their children in
instructing them about their sports, and by acquiring this information
themselves can give sympathetic appreciation to the children’s
amusements. Among the noteworthy contributions on sports and games there
are CHILDREN’S GAMES (Vol. 6, p. 141), an article for parents by Alice
B. Gomme, an expert on this subject; GAMES, CLASSICAL (Vol. 11, p. 443),
an account which every boy will read with pleasure, by Francis Storr,
editor of the _Journal of Education_, London; ATHLETIC SPORTS (Vol. 2,
p. 846); BASE-BALL (Vol. 3, p. 458), by Edward Breck; BASKET-BALL (Vol.
3, p. 483), FOOTBALL (Vol. 10, p. 617), of which the American section is
written by Walter Camp, the football expert; KITE-FLYING (Vol. 15, p.
839), by Major-Gen. Baden Powell; MARBLES (Vol. 17, p. 679), by W. E.
Garrett Fisher; LAWN TENNIS (Vol. 16, p. 300), by R. J. McNeill;
SWIMMING (Vol. 26, p. 231), by William Henry, founder and chief
secretary of the Royal Life Saving Society; SKATING (Vol. 25, p. 166),
and COASTING (Vol. 6, p. 603).
[Sidenote: Diverting Occupations]
Recreation in the form of diverting occupations is sometimes more
attractive to children, especially to those of a practical turn of mind,
than sports and games. It is often difficult for parents to encourage
these inclinations, since they themselves may not be familiar with the
subjects for which their children show a special aptitude, and a real
talent may thus fail to be cultivated. As soon as any particular bent in
the child is discovered, a parent ought to consider it a duty to learn
to help the boy or girl.
The new Encyclopaedia Britannica will, on all subjects of diverting
occupations, prove of immense practical assistance to parents. They will
find all that they need to know to help their children under such
headings as PHOTOGRAPHY (Vol. 21, p. 485), by Sir William de Wiveleslie
Abney, formerly president of the Royal Photographic Society, James
Waterhouse also a former president of the same society, who writes on
photographic apparatus, and A. H. Hinton, author of _Practical Pictorial
Photography_, etc.; BEE, _Bee Keeping_ (Vol. 3, p. 628), by W. B. Carr,
formerly editor of the _Bee-Keeper’s Record_; the article AVIARY, on the
keeping of birds (Vol. 3, p. 60), by David Seth-Smith, formerly
president of the Avicultural Society; POULTRY AND POULTRY FARMING (Vol.
22, p. 213), by Lewis Wright, author of _The Practical Poultry-Keeper_;
BASKET, _Basket Making_ (Vol. 3, p. 481); HORTICULTURE (Vol. 13, p.
741), by M. T. Masters, late editor of _The Gardener’s Chronicle_, W. R.
W. Williams, superintendent of London County Council Botany Centre, John
Weathers, author of _Practical Guide to Garden Plants_, Prof. Liberty
Hyde Bailey, director of the College of Agriculture, Cornell University,
and Peter Henderson; CARPENTRY (Vol. 5, p. 386), by James Bartlett,
lecturer on construction, at Kings College, London; CONJURING (Vol. 6,
p. 943), by John Algernon Clarke, G. Faur, and John Nevil Maskelyne.
CHAPTER LXII
FOR SCHOOL-CHILDREN
[Sidenote: Importance of Correct First Impressions]
When a stick of hot glass is drawn out, no matter how far it is
stretched, the slender stick retains the original shape of the
piece—square, round or oval. In the same way, a child’s mind retains in
after life the shaping originally given to it. Everyone knows from
personal experience how difficult it is to rid the mind of a wrong
impression received in childhood. The editors of the new Britannica feel
that they have solved a great problem in making a work of the most
_accurate_ and _authoritative_ character _interesting to children_, for
they have received much valuable testimony that this end has been
attained. Dr. Charles W. Eliot, president-emeritus of Harvard
University, was an early subscriber for two sets for the use of his
grandchildren. He said that he found the work “altogether admirable; and
my grandchildren, who are at the most inquisitive ages, are of the same
opinion.” Professor W. G. Hale, of the University of Chicago, wrote, “My
children feel the same fascination in it that I do.” Judge J. P. Gorter,
of the Baltimore Supreme Court, has expressed his opinion that “every
family with growing children seeking information should have this
invaluable work in the library.” The owner of the new Britannica should
constantly encourage his children to go to the volumes for further
information on topics included in the course of the day’s studies at
school. It will not take long to make them realize that the volumes open
an inexhaustible mine of knowledge, and answer any question as to which
curiosity has been aroused. With a little help from you, at the
beginning, they will soon learn to use the Britannica for themselves.
[Sidenote: The Britannica Interesting to Children]
The love of reading is quickly developed in children. Some are attracted
to history, to the lives of great men, to exploration and to adventure;
others become more interested in the world of nature; still others have
a natural bent toward science and the mechanical arts. Whatever the
inclination may be, the Britannica stands at the child’s service, giving
to him the true facts in such a way that he can easily understand them.
The following suggestions will help children to pursue their favourite
lines of reading. They may like to begin with the heroes of myth and
history. Andrew Lang contributes a most comprehensive article on
MYTHOLOGY (Vol. 19, p. 128). The classified subject-list in Vol. 29
(Index) indicates nearly 500 separate articles on the gods and
mythological beings of ancient Greece and Rome, Asia, Egypt, Europe and
America. The central hero of medieval romance, ARTHUR (Vol. 2, p. 681),
is described by Miss Jessie L. Weston, author of _Arthurian Romances_.
The famous deeds of the CID (Vol. 6, p. 361), the foremost man of
Spain’s heroic period, are related by H. E. Watts, the well-known
translator of _Don Quixote_. ROLAND, LEGEND OF (Vol. 23, p. 464), tells
another stirring story.
[Sidenote: Heroes and Heroines of History, Romance and Adventure]
[Sidenote: The Romance of the Middle Ages]
[Sidenote: Heroes of Later Times]
[Sidenote: Famous Women of History]
Of peculiar interest to children are such articles as _Cyrus (The
Great)_, (Vol. 7, p. 706), by Dr. Eduard Meyer, professor of ancient
history, University of Berlin, author of the world-famous _History of
Antiquity_; ALEXANDER III (THE GREAT), (Vol. 1, p. 545), by the noted
Hellenist, Edwyn R. Bevan; CAESAR, JULIUS (Vol. 4, p. 938), by Henry
Stuart Jones, of Oxford University; HANNIBAL (Vol. 12, p. 920), by M. O.
B. Caspari, of London University; THEODORIC (Vol. 26, p. 768), the great
ruler of the Gothic nation, by Theodore Hodgkin, author of _Italy and
her Invaders_; CHARLEMAGNE, founder of the Holy Roman Empire (Vol. 5, p.
891), by Arthur W. Holland; CHARLES MARTEL (Vol. 5, p. 942), a great
type of courage and activity, by Christian Pfister, professor at the
Sorbonne, Paris; ALFRED THE GREAT (Vol. 1, p. 582), by Rev. Charles
Plummer, author of _The Life and Times of Alfred the Great_; CRUSADES
(Vol. 7, p. 524), by Ernest Barker, of Oxford University, a narrative
with all the action and interest of the best tales for children;
TEMPLARS (Vol. 26, p. 591), by W. Alison Phillips, author of _Modern
Europe_, etc.; LOUIS IX (Saint) (Vol. 17, p. 37), by Prof. James T.
Shotwell, of Columbia University; CONRADIN (Vol. 6, p. 968), the
pathetic life of this marvelous boy who perished at the age of
seventeen; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR (Vol. 13, p. 893), by Jules Viard,
archivist of the National Archives, Paris; FROISSART, JEAN (Vol. 11, p.
242), a notable biography, by Sir Walter Besant; CHARLES V (Vol. 5, p.
899), by Edward Armstrong, author of _The Emperor Charles V_, etc.;
CROMWELL, OLIVER (Vol. 7, p. 487), by Philip Chesney Yorke, of Oxford,
Capt. C. F. Atkinson, and R. J. McNeill; GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS (Vol. 12, p.
735), by R. Nisbet Bain, author of _Scandinavia_, etc.; MARLBOROUGH
(Vol. 17, p. 737), by Dr. W. P. Courtney; FREDERICK II (THE GREAT) (Vol.
11, p. 52), by James Sime, author of _History of Germany_, and W. Alison
Phillips; NAPOLEON I (Vol. 19, p. 190), by J. Holland Rose; NELSON (Vol.
19, p. 352), by David Hannay, author of _Short History of the Royal
Navy_; WELLINGTON (Vol. 28, p. 507); WASHINGTON, GEORGE (Vol. 28, p.
344), by Dr. William MacDonald, professor of American History in Brown
University; LINCOLN, ABRAHAM (Vol. 16, p. 703), by John G. Nicolay,
private secretary to President Lincoln, and Charles C. Whinery,
assistant editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; GRANT, ULYSSES S.
(Vol. 12, p. 355), by Capt. C. F. Atkinson, and John Fiske, author of
_The American Revolution_; LEE, ROBERT E. (Vol. 16, p. 362); BOADICEA
(Vol. 4, p. 94), by Dr. F. J. Haverfield, professor of ancient history,
Oxford University; MATILDA (THE GREAT COUNTESS) (Vol. 17, p. 888), by
Prof. Carlton H. Hayes, of Columbia University; JOAN OF ARC (Vol. 15, p.
420), by Prof. J. T. Shotwell, of Columbia University; ISABELLA (Vol.
14, p. 859); ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND (Vol. 9, p. 282), by A. F.
Pollard, professor of English history, London University; MARY, QUEEN OF
SCOTS (Vol. 17, p. 817), by Algernon C. Swinburne, the great poet,
author of _Mary Stuart_, etc.; CATHERINE DE’ MEDICI (Vol. 5, p. 528);
VICTORIA, QUEEN (Vol. 28, p. 28), by Hugh Chisholm, editor,
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The biographies are not dry outlines of the subjects’ lives, but
narratives of a thoroughly interesting and often most entertaining
nature. There has been a generous amount of space alloted the
biographical articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The article on
Napoleon I is equivalent to 60 pages of this Guide; that of George
Washington to 13 pages; of Abraham Lincoln to 23 pages; of Queen
Victoria 23 pages. Such length provides space for the picturesque
details which make the articles especially appropriate for children, and
will establish a taste for this kind of reading in later years.
[Sidenote: Readings in Natural History]
Many children show a bent for knowledge of the world of nature, and to
them the new Britannica will prove a faithful, constant companion. Their
pleasure in going to the encyclopaedia will be heightened by the many
beautiful pictures they will find in it. The articles on the domestic
animals not only relate in simple, readable fashion the very interesting
facts about their history and development, but are splendidly
illustrated with pictures of the different breeds so that by this means
alone anyone may learn to distinguish them. CAT (Vol. 5, p. 487), is by
Richard Lydekker, the noted naturalist; CATTLE (Vol. 5, p. 539) is by
Dr. William Fream, author of _Handbook of Agriculture_, and Robert
Wallace, professor of agriculture, Edinburgh University; DOG (Vol. 8, p.
374) is by Walter Baxendale, kennel editor of _The Field_, and Dr. F.
Chalmers Mitchell; HORSE (Vol. 13, p. 712) is by Sir William Henry
Flower, the noted biologist, author of _The Horse, a Study in Natural
History_, Richard Lydekker, E. D. Brickwood, Dr. William Fream and
Robert Wallace; PIG (Vol. 21, p. 594) is by Robert Wallace, and SHEEP
(Vol. 24, p. 817) is by Dr. Fream and Professor Wallace.
In too many books for children about the habits of wild animals, the
facts of nature are grossly distorted with the idea of impressing the
imagination. We are all familiar with the recent spirited controversy
over “nature fakers” and the reaction to more sober statement which it
brought about. It is the truth about the animal world that is wanted;
for it is quite wonderful and fascinating enough as it is. And the new
Britannica supplies this need in a most satisfactory and thorough
manner. Children never tire of natural history, and parents may be
assured that the information in the entertaining articles by noted
naturalists, in the pages of the Britannica, is of the most reliable and
accurate character.
[Sidenote: The Habits and Doings of Clever Animals]
Nothing, for instance, could be more absorbing to the average
school-child than the article ANT (Vol. 2, p. 85), by Prof. George H.
Carpenter of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, who wrote the
well-known book _Insects; their Structure and Life._ Here he tells how
colonies of ants are founded, and how they live, and how they receive
other insects as guests in order to obtain the food they desire, and how
some species make slaves of other species. Numerous examples of their
sense and intelligence are given, and the question as to whether their
actions are rational or instinctive is discussed in the light of the
most recent knowledge. The story of the BEE (Vol. 3, p. 625), also by
Professor Carpenter, is equally wonderful, for we learn all about the
solitary and social bees, the social organization of the hive, and how
the worker bees are victimized. Both of these articles are fully
illustrated. SPIDERS (Vol. 25, p. 663), by R. I. Pocock, superintendent
of the Zoological Gardens, London, is another example of the
adaptability of the Britannica to children’s reading. The accounts of
their webs, nests and modes of catching prey hold the attention
throughout.
A great deal of the most curious and recent knowledge of the animal
kingdom is related in supplementary articles such as COLOURS OF ANIMALS
(Vol. 6, p. 731), by Dr. E. B. Poulton, Hope professor of zoology at
Oxford, author of _The Colours of Animals_, and MIMICRY (Vol. 18, p.
495), by R. I. Pocock. The latter tells how animals protect themselves
from their enemies by resemblance to other animals or objects.
[Sidenote: Knowledge about Plants and Animals]
Space will not permit further specific mention. The life-story of the
entire animal kingdom, detailed information about plants and flowers are
to be found in the pages of the new Britannica. The accurate and
beautiful illustrations and the text, written in every case by
naturalists of acknowledged reputation, and written always in the
clearest language, help to give the work its unique position as the
greatest source of authoritative and easily comprehended knowledge.
[Sidenote: Marvelous Machines]
Children delight in machinery and what it accomplishes, and the
Britannica tells about this with great thoroughness in its complete
section dealing with processes of manufacture. A number of the articles
on this subject have been suggested in the last chapter as suitable for
parents who wish to interest their children in the industrial world, and
the list may be further extended for the benefit of older children by
including such articles as TEXTILE PRINTING (Vol. 26, p. 694), by Dr.
Edmund Knecht, of Manchester University; FINISHING (Vol. 10, p. 378)
also by Professor Knecht; WOOL, WORSTED AND WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES (Vol.
28, p. 805), by Aldred F. Barker, professor of textile industries,
Bradford Technical College; TYPOGRAPHY, _Modern Practical Typography_
(Vol. 27, p. 542), by John Southward, author of _Practical Printing_,
and H. M. Ross; PRINTING (Vol. 22, p. 350), by C. T. Jacobi, managing
director of the Chiswick Press, London; DREDGE AND DREDGING (Vol. 8, p.
562), by Walter Hunter, a noted consulting engineer; REAPING (Vol. 22,
p. 944), by Primrose McConnell, author of _Diary of a Working Farmer_,
etc.
Boys with a practical, mechanical turn of mind will delight in such
articles as BRIDGES (Vol. 4, p. 533), by Prof. W. C. Unwin, with many
illustrations; MOTOR VEHICLES (Vol. 18, p. 914), by the late C. S.
Rolls, a pioneer of motoring, and Edward S. Smith; FLIGHT AND FLYING,
_Artificial Flight_ (Vol. 10, p. 510), which describes, with many
pictures, flying machines from the earliest types to the latest, and
CYCLING (Vol. 7, p. 682), an historical and pictorial account of the
velocipede and bicycle. Nothing could be more interesting and
instructive than SHIP (Vol. 24, p. 860), of which the historical part is
by Rev. Edmond Warre, formerly head master of Eton College, and the
account of modern ships by Sir Philip Watts, who designed the
“Dreadnought” and the “Mauretania.” It is a real story, equivalent in
length to 190 pages of this Guide, with nearly 130 illustrations of all
sorts of craft including modern warships, ocean liners and vessels for
inland navigation. Under RAILWAYS (Vol. 22, p. 819) there is an equally
good history of the railway by H. M. Ross, editor of _The Times
Engineering Supplement_, and others.
[Sidenote: Electrical Apparatus]
The remarkable attraction possessed by electrical apparatus for many
boys will doubtless send them to such articles as DYNAMO (Vol. 8, p.
764), by C. C. Hawkins, author of _The Dynamo_; TELEPHONE (Vol. 26, p.
547), by Harry R. Kempe, electrician to the General Post Office, London;
TELEGRAPH (Vol. 26, p. 510), also by H. R. Kempe, and the chapter on
_Wireless Telegraphy_ (p. 529), by J. A. Fleming, professor of
electrical engineering in the University of London. These accounts are
full of the most practical information, and will be of inestimable help
to any boy who wishes to experiment for himself.
[Sidenote: Industrial Processes]
Many industrial processes, while not employing complicated machinery,
nevertheless possess much interest, both from an historical and a
technical point of view, and on these the new Britannica is as complete
and authentic as in all other departments. Especially useful and
entertaining to children will be found the material relating to the
manufacture of the common objects by which they are surrounded. Such,
for instance, are CERAMICS (Vol. 5, p. 703), by William Burton and
several other experts, with beautiful illustrations; GLASS (Vol. 12, p.
86), by Harry James Powell, author of _Glass Making_, etc., Alexander
Nesbitt, and William Rosenhain of the National Physical Laboratory,
England; and PROCESS (Vol. 22, p. 408), an illustrated account, by Edwin
Bale, of the photomechanical processes by which illustrations are
reproduced in printing.
These and hundreds of similar articles will prove most helpful and
suggestive to school-children who are constantly called on to prepare
“themes” and write compositions. As soon as a child makes acquaintance
with the new Britannica he will quickly realize its inexhaustible
resources, and the aid it lends him in his studies will be continued
throughout the course of his life, in his business and in his general
reading.
[Sidenote: Explorers’ Voyages and Journeys]
Children love to read adventures of explorers in forcing their way to
unknown lands. The impression they make is much clearer when the child
has learned to distinguish the different motives which have led to
discovery and to exploration—commercial expansion, fresh conquests,
religious zeal, flight from persecution, or the advancement of knowledge
for its own sake. With such information he will read in a new light the
stirring history of adventure, the great story of hardship and
endurance.
The Britannica presents all this on a definite, scientific plan. The
inquirer starts on his trip through any field of learning with
guide-posts clearly marked, and successive ones in sight one from the
other; so that there is no going astray, no uncertain wandering. A
reader—young or old—with taste for exploration and adventure may turn
first to GEOGRAPHY, _Progress of Geographical Discovery_ (Vol. 11, p.
623), by Dr. H. R. Mill, editor of _The International Geography._ This
article outlines geographical discovery in chronological order from the
days of the Phoenicians. The reader will doubtless make excursions into
other parts of the books for more detailed accounts, but he has always
this main article to guide him. He will go to the article on HERODOTUS
(Vol. 13, p. 381), the traveler, by Canon George Rawlinson, the great
Oriental archaeologist, and the Rev. E. M. Walker of Oxford University;
and to the story of PYTHEAS (Vol. 22, p. 703), the Greek navigator who
brought the first definite news of northwestern Europe to the
Mediterranean world, by Sir Edward H. Bunbury, author of _A History of
Ancient Geography_, and Dr. C. R. Beazley of the University of
Birmingham. Other stories of exploration and adventure are: VIKING (Vol.
28, p. 62), by Charles F. Keary, author of _The Vikings in Western
Christendom_; LEIF ERICSSON (Vol. 16, p. 396), the first European to set
foot on the American continent, by Prof. C. R. Beazley; VINLAND (Vol.
28, p. 98), with all the latest known facts of Leif’s discovery, by
Prof. J. E. Olson of the University of Wisconsin; the marvelous career
of the great Venetian discoverer, POLO, MARCO (Vol. 22, p. 7), boldest
of medieval travelers, by Sir Henry Yule, author of _The Book of Ser
Marco Polo_, and Prof. C. R. Beazley; HENRY OF PORTUGAL (the Navigator)
(Vol. 13, p. 296); DIAZ DE NOVAES (Vol. 8, p. 172); COLUMBUS,
CHRISTOPHER (Vol. 6, p. 741)—all of these by Professor Beazley;
[Sidenote: America—Its Discoverers and Conquerors] GAMA, VASCO DA (Vol.
11, p. 433), who discovered the Cape route to India; PINZON (Vol. 21, p.
631); VESPUCCI, AMERIGO (Vol. 27, p. 1053), by Professor Beazley;
BALBOA, VASCO NUÑEZ DE (Vol. 3, p. 241), discoverer of the Pacific
Ocean; CABOT (Vol. 4, p. 921), by H. P. Biggar, author of _The Voyages
of the Cabots to Greenland_; MAGELLAN, FERDINAND (Vol. 17, p. 302), the
first circumnavigator of the globe, by Professor Beazley; SOTO,
FERDINANDO DE (Vol. 25, p. 435), wrongly called the discoverer of the
Mississippi; PERU, _History_ (Vol. 21, p. 274), by Sir Clements R.
Markham, author of _Travels in Peru and India_, a full account of
Pizarro’s conquest; CORTES, HERNAN (Vol. 7, p. 205), a concise and able
description of the conquest of Mexico; CARTIER, JACQUES (Vol. 5, p.
433), which tells of the discovery of the St. Lawrence; HUDSON, HENRY
(Vol. 13, p. 849); BAFFIN, WILLIAM (Vol. 3, p. 192); LA SALLE (Vol. 16,
p. 230), by C. C. Whinery, assistant editor of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica; [Sidenote: Great Voyages] CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE (Vol. 5, p.
830), by Dr. N. E. Dionne, author of _Life of Samuel Champlain_, etc.;
DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS (Vol. 8, p. 473); BUCCANEERS (Vol. 4, p. 709), by
David Hannay, a stirring account of the piratical adventurers of
different nationalities who united against Spain in the 17th century,
and COOK, JAMES (Vol. 7, p. 71), by Professor Beazley.
[Sidenote: Modern Exploration]
The story of geographical discovery and exploration is continued in such
articles as AMERICA, _General Historical Sketch_ (Vol. 1, p. 806), by
David Hannay; AFRICA, _History: Exploration and Survey since 1875_ (Vol.
1, pp. 331 and 352), by F. R. Cana, author of _South Africa from the
Great Trek to the Union_; ASIA, _Exploration_ (Vol. 2, p. 738), by Col.
Sir Thomas H. Holdich, formerly superintendent of the Frontier Surveys
of India; AUSTRALIA, _Discovery and Exploration_ (Vol. 2, p. 958); and
POLAR REGIONS (Vol. 21, p. 938), by Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, the Arctic
explorer, and Dr. H. R. Mill, which gives a brilliant survey of all the
attempts to conquer the frozen world. In connection with these articles
should be read the full and interesting biographies of the great modern
explorers such as BAKER, SIR SAMUEL WHITE (Vol. 3, p. 227); BURTON, SIR
RICHARD F. (Vol. 4, p. 864), by Dr. Stanley Lane-Poole; LIVINGSTONE,
DAVID (Vol. 16, p. 813), by John Scott Keltie, secretary of the Royal
Geographical Society; STANLEY, SIR HENRY MORTON (Vol. 25, p. 779), by F.
R. Cana; EMIN PASHA (Vol. 9, p. 340); SPEKE, JOHN H. (Vol. 25, p. 633);
PARRY, SIR WILLIAM EDWARD (Vol. 20, p. 865); FRANKLIN, SIR JOHN (Vol.
11, p. 30); KANE, ELISHA KENT (Vol. 15, p. 650); NORDENSKIÖLD, NILS
ADOLF ERIK (Vol. 19, p. 740); NANSEN, FRIDTJOF (Vol. 19, p. 162); PEARY,
ROBERT EDWIN (Vol. 21, p. 30). See the chapter on _Geography_ in this
Guide.
[Sidenote: A Complete History of the World]
A strong taste for history is often found in children, and the new
Britannica is, among other things, a complete history of the world, by
the greatest historians of the present day. In respect to the treatment
and arrangement of the historical section there are many things that
make it especially adapted for young people’s reading. In the first
place the great episodes of history, such as FRENCH REVOLUTION,
RENAISSANCE, REFORMATION, MIDDLE AGES, and CRUSADES, are discussed in
separate articles. Also every battle, siege, campaign, or war of
importance has its article, apart from its treatment in the histories of
countries. The historical articles in the new Britannica will send those
a little older to other articles dealing with government, and thus help
them to cope intelligently with the social and civic problems of the
age—in other words, enable them to become the best kind of citizens. The
chapter in this Guide headed _Questions of the Day_ covers this ground;
and see the chapters on _History_.
A child is naturally curious to know about mountains, rivers, caverns,
the causes of rain, dew and wind. Just as this encyclopaedia shows
itself the best of instructors in regard to the plant and animal world,
so with natural phenomena it serves to bring the child into close,
sympathetic touch with the truths of science.
[Sidenote: Physical Geography made Interesting]
The principles of physical geography are clearly explained in GEOGRAPHY,
_Principles of_ (Vol. 11, p. 630), by Dr. H. R. Mill; and when these are
learned young people will turn with eager interest to such articles as
ALPS (Vol. 1, p. 737), partly by W. A. B. Coolidge, author of _The Alps
in Nature and in History_; ANDES (Vol. 1, p. 960); APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS
(Vol. 2, p. 207), by Dr. Arthur C. Spencer, geologist to the Geological
Survey of the United States; HIMALAYA (Vol. 13, p. 470); VOLCANO (Vol,
28, p. 178), by F. W. Rudler, of the Museum of Practical Geology,
London; VESUVIUS (Vol. 27, p. 1063), by Sir Archibald Geikie and Dr.
Thomas Ashby; EARTHQUAKE (Vol. 8, p. 817), by F. W. Rudler and Dr. John
Milne, author of _Earthquakes_, etc.; GEYSER (Vol. 11, p. 913); CAVE
(Vol. 5, p. 573), by Dr. William Boyd Dawkins, author of _Cave Hunting_,
etc.; MAMMOTH CAVE (Vol. 17, p. 531), by Rev. Horace C. Hovey, author of
_Celebrated American Caverns_, etc.; LURAY CAVERN (Vol. 17, p. 127),
also by Dr. Hovey; GRAND CANYON (Vol. 12, p. 347), by R. S. Tarr, late
professor of physical geography, Cornell University; GREAT SALT LAKE
(Vol. 12, p. 421); YOSEMITE (Vol. 28, p. 937), by Dr. John Muir,
president of the American Alpine Club, and author of _The Mountains of
California_; YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (Vol. 28, p. 912); GLACIER (Vol.
12, p. 60), by Rev. E. C. Spicer, of Oxford University; NIAGARA (Vol.
19, p. 634), by Dr. G. K. Gilbert, author of _Niagara Falls and their
History_; MISSISSIPPI RIVER (Vol. 18, p. 604); AMAZON (Vol. 1, p. 783),
by Col. George E. Church, the famous American explorer of the Amazon;
ORINOCO (Vol. 20, p. 275), also by Colonel Church; RHINE (Vol. 23, p.
240), by Dr. J. F. Muirhead, editor of many of Baedeker’s Guide Books,
and Philip A. Ashworth; NILE (Vol. 19, p. 692), by F. R. Cana and Sir W.
E. Garstin, governing director, Suez Canal Co.; NIGER (Vol. 19, p. 674)
and CONGO (Vol. 6, p. 914), by F. R. Cana; YANGTSZE-KIANG (Vol. 28, p.
903), by George Jamieson, formerly British consul-general at Shanghai;
DESERT (Vol. 8, p. 92), by Dr. H. N. Dickson, professor of geography,
University College, Reading; SAHARA (Vol. 23, p. 1004), by Edward
Heawood, librarian of the Royal Geographical Society, London, and F. R.
Cana. There are also separate articles on the oceans and large lakes.
Astronomy is a science which is peculiarly attractive to children, since
it arouses the imagination and makes a strong appeal to their delight in
all that is marvelous. There are 277 astronomical articles in the new
Encyclopaedia Britannica to which the classified list in the Index
Volume (Vol. 29, p. 888) is the key.
[Sidenote: Readings in Astronomy]
In the preceding chapter are mentioned a few articles which will serve
for the beginning of an acquaintance with astronomy. When a child has
learned to know the zodiacal constellations he will certainly want to
read ZODIAC (Vol. 28, p. 993), by Agnes M. Clerke, author of _A History
of Astronomy in the 19th Century_, for the story of the signs and what
they meant to the nations of past ages. There are separate articles on
the principal constellations and stars. ASTROLOGY (Vol. 2, p. 795), by
Prof. Morris Jastrow of the University of Pennsylvania, will prove both
entertaining and instructive.
Those who wish to know about methods of observation will find the
complete story in TELESCOPE (Vol. 26, p. 557), a beautifully illustrated
article by H. Dennis Taylor, author of _A System of Applied Optics_, and
Sir David Gill, formerly astronomer royal at the Cape of Good Hope.
[Sidenote: Games and Pastimes]
In the preceding chapter a few articles on games were mentioned as being
useful to parents helping very young children to amuse themselves. A
little later, the child will be delighted to choose for himself among
the 260 articles on sports and pastimes; and the analysis of this
department of the Britannica, in Part 6 of this Guide, will then be of
service. We may mention here the articles GOLF (Vol. 12, p. 219), by H.
G. Hutchinson, golf champion and author of _Hints on Golf_; LACROSSE
(Vol. 16, p. 54); BOWLING (Vol. 4, p. 344); ROWING (Vol. 23, p. 783), by
C. M. Pitman, formerly stroke of the Oxford University Eight;
MODEL-YACHTING (Vol. 18, p. 640); ANGLING, _Methods and Practice_ (Vol.
2, p. 24); CRICKET (Vol. 7, p. 435); ARCHERY, _Pastime of_ (Vol. 2, p.
364), by the late W. J. Ford. A long list of indoor and out-door games
will be found in the classified subject-list (Vol. 29, p. 946).
[Sidenote: Diverting and Profitable Occupations]
The aptitude of children for diverting and often profitable occupations
is admirably fostered by the new Britannica through many of its very
practical articles. This matter has been discussed in the last chapter.
In addition it is worthy of note that an ingenious boy could learn to
make and set up a sun-dial with the help of DIAL AND DIALLING (Vol. 8,
p. 149), by Hugh Godfray; and could experiment and amuse himself with a
CAMERA LUCIDA or a CAMERA OBSCURA (Vol. 5, p. 104), from the articles
written by Charles J. Joly, late Astronomer Royal of Ireland; while even
a younger child could quickly learn to tie any kind of a knot from KNOT
(Vol. 15, p. 871), with 54 illustrations, by P. G. Tait, the famous
British physicist. All the crafts that produce objects of household
utility are practically taught in articles by experts, so that the
Britannica is a complete guide to the use of every kind of tool.
[Sidenote: Reading for Girls]
In the field of girls’ occupations there is in the Britannica much
material that serves to give knowledge of the best methods of home
making.
_A great number of articles for girls’ reading will be found among those
named in the chapter For Women._
In these days parents, and especially mothers, are devoting more and
more time to the study of child development. The importance and value of
intelligent sympathetic guidance in everything a child does—and every
active child strives to do something—has been fully realized. The chief
problem before the parent is, therefore, to have at hand some ready
means of meeting every expression of a child’s interests, every
indication of budding talents. A short experience with the new
Britannica will show this to be one of its many valuable functions.
Children do not need to be driven to the volumes. They need only to be
made acquainted with them.
CHAPTER LXIII
SOME QUESTIONS CHILDREN SOMETIMES ASK, AND SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK
CHILDREN
A child gains a great part of its knowledge by asking questions, and he
should be encouraged to ask them. But parents often find the child’s
questions, even those about the objects he sees every day, so difficult
to answer, that he is told “not to bother.” With the new Encyclopaedia
Britannica at hand, there is hardly any intelligent question that cannot
be answered after a glance at the Index and at the page to which it
refers the reader. Again, there is no better way at once of amusing and
instructing the child than to ask him questions and help him find his
way to the answers. Here are a few questions: some of the kind that a
child might ask, and some that may be put to a child. The Britannica
supplies interesting answers to all of them, and some of these answers
are given here.
_What makes people snore?_
The answer, found at once by referring to “snoring” in the Index, is
that the cause is breathing through the mouth, which makes the soft
palate vibrate. When the child is told this, it should also be told what
the Britannica says about mouth-breathing being a dangerous habit for
children to form, as it often leads to sore throats.
_How does one ant tell another to go to work?_
By patting it with its feelers. The article ANT, by Professor Carpenter,
will supply you with stories to tell children as fascinating as any
fairy tale.
_What makes the colours of sunset?_
Dust. If it were not for the dust floating in the air, we should lose
not only the brilliant sunsets but the glorious cloud scenery as well,
and there would be no twilight. Furthermore, all the moisture in the
air, which now condenses on the particles of floating dust, would settle
on our clothes and on the walls of our rooms. You will find many other
curious facts in the article DUST, by John Aitken, who invented the
machine for counting the particles of dust in the atmosphere.
_How does the brightness of moonlight compare with that of sunlight?_
Most people would guess that sunlight is twenty, or, at most, fifty
times as strong; yet it is really half a million times stronger. The
article MOON, by Dr. Simon Newcomb, is full of such curious information
and of delightful pictures.
_Why did the Israelites in bondage need straw to put in their bricks,
although we do not use it in ours?_
The article BRICK tells you that their bricks were made of Nile mud,
which would not bind without something to hold it together.
_When sea-water freezes, does the salt go into the ice?_
Only one-fifth of it, the article ICE says.
_Are you sure you like the taste of vanilla?_
This is an excellent puzzle to put to a bright child. The curious
answer, found in the article TASTE, is that vanilla, like onions and
some other substances which we think have strong flavors, really has no
taste at all. We smell them as we eat them, and therefore we imagine we
taste them. This you can prove to a child by blindfolding it, while its
nose is firmly closed, holding a slice of onion and a slice of apple
near its open mouth, and touching its tongue first with one and then
with the other.
_What is a beaver’s favourite food?_
Of all unlikely things—water-lilies! This, and other things that will
delight children, you will find in the article BEAVER, by Richard
Lydekker, the famous naturalist.
_Why is it harder to guess the width of a river than to guess the width
of a field as wide?_
The article VISION will tell you.
_Why are new-born babies’ eyes often slate-blue, for a time?_
The article EYE will tell you.
_Why is not spiders’ silk manufactured?_
Unfortunately, although the silk is of the finest quality, quite equal
to the silkworm’s, the spiders are such fierce cannibals that each one
would have to be kept in a separate box, and this would make the silk
too costly. The article SPIDERS, by R. I. Pocock, superintendent of the
London Zoological Gardens, also tells you how spiders make their way
through the air to islands in the sea; how the wolf-spider builds a nest
with a hinged door, and how the common pond-spider builds his
thimble-shaped house under water and fills it with air by swimming down
to it, time after time, on each trip taking down a tiny bubble of air.
_Why do not animals that sleep all through the winter starve to death?_
Because they live on the fat they have put on during the summer, as the
article HIBERNATION explains.
_Why could not the Norsemen who visited America in the 11th century
found permanent settlements?_
The natives were hostile and the Norsemen had no firearms. The wonderful
story of the first voyages to America is told in the article VINLAND.
_How can you tell how far away a flash of lightning is?_
Sound travels so much more slowly than light does, that if the flash is
a mile away you see it five seconds before you hear the report; so by
counting the seconds you can measure the distance. The Index, under
“Lightning: distance” refers you to the article SOUND, by Professor
Poynting.
_Why does your hair stand on end when you are frightened?_
The article SKIN, by Professor Parsons, will tell you about this curious
action of the muscles.
_Why do we count by tens?_
Because people began by counting on their fingers and thumbs, and when
they got to ten they had to begin again. Some tribes used to make twenty
their basis for counting, adding in their toes. The article ARITHMETIC
tells you this; and a newspaper critic said of this article that he was
amazed to find it one of the most readable things in the Britannica. The
truth is that there are no subjects that are dull in themselves. There
is a dull way of treating them, and there is also the Britannica way,
which is to show you _how things came to be as they are_. That is why
children are delighted when “Britannica time” comes, the hour when the
parent sits down by the bookcase and tells them true stories out of the
volumes and shows them the exquisite pictures.
_Are men or women oftener stammerers?_
The article STAMMERING, which tells you that men are much oftener
afflicted than women, is one that all parents should read. If a child’s
speech is carefully watched, the first trouble of this kind may
sometimes be checked before it becomes a habit.
_Why does a room look smaller with red than with violet wall-paper?_
Read the article VISION and you will understand this and many other
curious facts about the way our eyes do their work. Furthermore, you
will be reminded that slight defects in a child’s sight should be
noticed and treated by an oculist before permanent harm has been done.
_Why is winter colder than summer?_
Simply because the sun’s rays, coming aslant instead of from overhead,
travel through more miles of air and are thus robbed of much of their
heat before they reach us. The polar regions actually get more hours of
sunlight in a year than we get in the United States, more even than
there are at the equator, but the sun is never high above the horizon at
the poles.
_Can a snake cross a frozen pond?_
No, nor move on any other smooth surface, as the article SNAKES shows.
_How long was Abraham Lincoln at school?_
Less than a year in all, as shown by the article LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, by J.
G. Nicolay (Lincoln’s private secretary) and C. C. Whinery. But although
he could not get much teaching, he read over and over again every book
he could get hold of.
Here are a few questions without the answers; but the numbers after each
question show the volume and page of the Britannica where each answer
can be found:
_What makes blood clot?_ (Vol. 4, p. 81.)
_Are there any red-haired human races?_ (Vol. 12, p. 823.)
_Why does a cut apple turn brown?_ (Vol. 21, p. 756.)
_What makes negroes black?_ (Vol. 25, p. 190.)
_Are men or women oftener colour-blind?_ (Vol. 28, p. 139.)
_Why do stars twinkle?_ (Vol. 23, p. 29.)
_What happens in your throat when you sob?_ (Vol. 23, p. 195.)
_What change in water, as it freezes, makes ice float?_ (Vol. 14, p.
227).
_Why is the shadow cast by an electric light sharper-edged than the
shadow cast by the sun?_ (Vol. 24, p. 758).
_Why does fright make people faint?_ (Vol. 27, p. 942).
_What makes the beautiful “ice-flowers” on a frosted window-pane?_ (Vol.
14, p. 226).
_How do trappers prepare valuable fur-skins so as to preserve them until
they get to market?_
The skins are simply dried in the air, as stated in the article _Fur_,
which was written by the head of a great wholesale fur business.
_How does the amount of air in a room spoiled by an ordinary gas-burner,
or a small reading-lamp, compare with the amount spoiled by a man’s
breathing?_
The gas burner or the lamp spoils four times as much air, as shown in
the article VENTILATION.
_What part of your weight is blood?_
One-twentieth. (Vol. 27, p. 939).
_What domestic animal is oftenest born with only one eye?_
The pig. (Vol. 18, p. 743).
_Which covers the more space, the United States (without Alaska) or
Europe?_
Europe. (Vol. 27, p. 612, and Vol. 9, p. 907.)
_If you looked at the moon all night every night, how soon would you
have seen all its surface?_
Never. Four-tenths of it can never be seen from the earth. (Vol. 18, p.
803.)
_What was the great difference between the destruction of Pompeii and
that of Herculaneum?_
Pompeii was covered by ashes and Herculaneum by mud. (Vol. 22, p. 50,
and Vol. 13, p. 342.)
_Why do not high mountains, where more snow falls than melts, keep
growing higher?_
Because pressure forces the snow, changed into ice, to descend in the
form of glaciers, as explained in the article GLACIER.
_Who wrote to George Washington, on behalf of a number of officers in
the United States army, asking him to make himself king of the United
States?_
Col. Lewis Nicola. The article WASHINGTON, GEORGE, by Professor
MacDonald of Brown University, gives you the words of Washington’s
indignant reply.
_How deep has anyone ever dived in diver’s dress?_
The article DIVERS tells you: 210 feet.
_In baseball, how is a fielding-record calculated?_
To get the fielder’s average, you divide the number of chances he has
made the most of by the total number of chances he has had. (Vol. 3, p.
461.)
_How tall must a giant be?_
Seven feet, to be properly called a giant. (Vol. 18, p. 741).
_Where were the first lighthouses built?_
In lower Egypt, as stated in the article LIGHTHOUSE, which describes all
the great lighthouses and gives pictures of the towers and of the
wonderful lamps.
_When ships are going through the Panama Canal, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, will they be heading to the eastward or to the westward?_
Oddly enough, to the eastward; for the Isthmus curves so, just where the
canal line lies, that the Pacific end is much to the eastward of the
Atlantic end. You can see this plainly on the detailed map in the
article PANAMA CANAL.
_Why does a tame rabbit die if it is held erect for half an hour?_
Because the muscles of its abdomen are so weak that they cannot act as a
belt, as our muscles do, and all the rabbit’s blood settles below the
heart. (Vol. 27, p. 942.)
_For what price was Manhattan Island bought from the Indians in 1626?_
For $24 worth of goods, as shown in the article NEW YORK.
_Why do people, when they are in the polar regions, seldom catch cold?_
Because colds are caused by microbes and there are very few microbes in
places so far from any masses of people, as you can see from the article
CLIMATE.
_If North America were spread out on the surface of the moon, what share
of the moon’s surface would it cover?_
About four-sevenths. (Vol. 18, p. 805, and Vol. 19, p. 764.)
_Which is the greater: the highest mountain’s height or the deepest
sea’s depth?_
The sea’s depth, which is 31,614 feet; while Mt. Everest is 29,002 feet
high. (Vol. 19, p. 973, and Vol. 10, p. 7.)
_Of what use are the hairs on a caterpillar?_
Like the bristles on a dog-collar, they keep an enemy from biting him.
(Vol. 6, p. 733.)
_Why do you twist yourself into an uncomfortable position when you have
a pain?_
Because instinct teaches you that discomfort will help you by partially
taking your attention away from the pain. (Vol. 22, p. 587.)
_What warm-blooded creature has the longest average life?_
Man, except possibly the whale; but not the elephant, as is generally
believed. The article LONGEVITY tells how long all kinds of animals
live.
_What mistake about American history is caused in our minds by the
celebration of the Fourth of July?_
The belief that the Declaration of Independence was signed on the 4th of
July. Congress did not order it to be engrossed for signature until July
19th. The article INDEPENDENCE, DECLARATION OF, also shows that the most
important day was July 2nd, when Congress adopted the Resolution of
Independence.
If you look up the answers to these questions, in the Britannica, you
will incidentally learn, from the articles to which you turn, a great
many things that will be of practical use to you in every-day life. For
whether you turn to the volumes because you want only a single fact, or
because you want to learn all about some important subject—or even
because you merely want to pass a pleasant hour—you always get from them
far more than you had hoped to find.
PART IV
READINGS ON QUESTIONS OF THE DAY WHICH RELATE TO THE DUTIES OF AMERICAN
CITIZENSHIP AND TO CURRENT POLITICS
CHAPTER LXIV
QUESTIONS OF THE DAY
[Sidenote: An Intimate Book]
The old idea of an encyclopaedia as a remote book, distant from
every-day needs and the real public questions of the day, and to be
consulted only for information about ancient history and medieval
philosophy, was a wrong one. It was wrong _in theory_, if an
encyclopaedia is to be a live and valuable book. And it was wrong _in
practice_. It is not the case with the new Britannica. For the
Britannica is full of information about current public questions; and
even its treatment of the past, remote or near, is from a fresh and
modern view-point, and is of the utmost value as throwing the light of
history on the problems of modern politics and every-day life. The
spirit of to-day is an intensely wide-awake and inquisitive one, and
people are no longer willing to believe that “whatever is, is
right”—much less that a thing is right because it _has been_, no matter
how long. Indeed the very phrase “has been” as now used in the
vernacular implies the outworn, the discarded. The Britannica, a book
for intimate use on the questions of the day, is a record _of what is_,
as well as of what has been, and of the great changes, the constant
flux, of the past and of the present.
[Sidenote: Sociology]
One of our symptoms of health is the development of a social sense, or,
better, a social conscience. This is due in no small degree to the work
of Herbert Spencer in founding a new science, called by him Sociology.
For an inspiring and stimulating starting-point for the study in the
Britannica of the great social and political questions of the day let
the reader study the article SOCIOLOGY (Vol. 25, p. 322), by Benjamin
Kidd, who wrote _Social Evolution_, and _Principles of Western
Civilization_.
[Sidenote: Education]
Evolution, sociology, Spencerian psychology and the closer relation of
the state to the individual are all important factors in the educational
changes of the last few years; and their study is indispensable to a
clear understanding of the great questions of education. A more concrete
study may be based on the article EDUCATION (Vol. 8, p. 951) and
particularly the part on education in the United States by Nicholas
Murray Butler, president of Columbia University. An elaborate course of
reading on education is given in another chapter of this Guide _For
Teachers_. But it may be well to call attention here to the fact that
there are in the articles on individual states sections on the
educational system of each state; and in the separate articles on each
city similar descriptions of schools in those cities; and also that
either in the article on the city or town in which it is situated, or in
a separate article there is an estimate, a description, and a historical
sketch of each of the great universities and colleges of the country.
This information is not merely of value if one wishes to understand in a
general way the trend of education, but of particular interest to one
who is choosing the school best adapted to a special need. In the same
way there are articles on other great educational institutions—for
example a general article on MUSEUMS OF SCIENCE (Vol. 19, p. 64) and one
on LIBRARIES (Vol. 16, p. 545), as well as articles on such special
institutions as the Smithsonian, or treatment of them in the article on
the places where the institution is—as in the article on Washington for
the Library of Congress, the article on New York City for the
Metropolitan Museum, etc.
[Sidenote: Defectives and Their Training]
But government, particularly in America, besides taking a direct
interest and responsibility in the education of its youth, has begun
within the last few years to assume the task of uplifting those of its
citizens who are below the normal. Modern methods of dealing with
criminals and of caring for defectives and the insane are based on a
principle entirely different from that which obtained 50, or even 20,
years ago. The whole article _Insanity_ (Vol. 14, p. 597) might well be
read as a preliminary to a study of this topic, since it treats of
idiocy and imbecility as well as of the more violent forms of mental
disorder, and since it treats them all as forms of disease—the basis of
the modern method of treatment which has substituted the hospital and
the school for the mere place of detention. In particular, however, the
last part of this article dealing with _Hospital Treatment_ should be
studied. It is by Dr. Frederick Peterson, the American specialist, and
it describes the improved conditions of modern asylums. “Physical
restraint is no longer practised.... The general progress of medical
science in all directions has been manifested in the department of
psychiatry by improved methods of treatment, in the way of
sleep-producing and alleviating drugs, dietetics, physical culture,
hydrotherapy and the like. There are few asylums now without
pathological and clinical laboratories.... The colony scheme has been
successfully adopted by the state of New York at the Craig Colony for
Epileptics at Sonyea and elsewhere.... Many asylums have, as it were,
thrown off detached cottages for the better care of certain patients....
But the ideal system is that of the psychopathic hospital and the colony
for the insane.” It is with the “colony” plan that Dr. Peterson’s name
is intimately connected, especially in New York state. In the Britannica
article on New York state there is a full treatment (Vol. 19, p. 601) of
the state’s charitable institutions, including its hospitals for the
insane, the Craig Colony already mentioned, the Letchworth Village
custodial asylum for epileptics and feeble-minded, and other
institutions of the same kind. And in the same way the system in each
state is described in the separate article on that state with special
attention to the peculiar features in its administration of its
hospitals and schools for insane and imbeciles.
[Sidenote: The Blind]
There has been a similar change in the education of the blind and the
deaf—or rather education is now provided for these classes, whereas they
formerly received none at all. And this education is coming under state
control and, once under governmental supervision, is being transferred
from departments in charge of penal or charitable institutions to the
department of public schools. For the most striking instances of what
has been accomplished by improved systems of training under private
supervision see the articles on SAMUEL GRIDLEY HOWE (Vol. 13, p. 837),
the great teacher of the blind at the Perkins Institution for the Blind
in Boston; on his blind and deaf pupil, LAURA BRIDGMAN (Vol. 4, p. 559),
and on HELEN ADAMS KELLER (Vol. 15, p. 718), another and even more
remarkable blind and deaf student, whose education, coming as a product
of a new sociology, has made her a most efficient social helper and
social worker.
From these articles the student should go to _Blindness_ (Vol. 4, p.
59), by Sir Francis J. Campbell, principal of the Royal Normal College
for the Blind, Norwood, London; an article equivalent in length to 40
pages of this Guide. Its author, the founder of the college, is himself
a blind man, who, born in Tennessee, in 1832, and educated at the
Nashville school, and afterwards in music at Leipzig and Berlin, had
from 1858 to 1869 been associated with Dr. Howe at the Perkins
Institution, Boston, and was knighted in 1909 for his services to the
education of the blind. The part of his article dealing with the
education of the blind is, therefore, doubly valuable and interesting.
The main topics with which it deals are: early training—other senses of
the blind not _naturally_ sharper than those of the seeing, but
developed by cultivation of hearing and touch from early childhood;
physical training to increase the average of vitality; mental training;
early manual training; choice of occupation; piano-forte tuning; musical
training; deaf-mutes should not be educated with the blind as their
needs are so different; blind boys and blind girls should not be taught
together, as coeducation promotes intermarriage, which is a calamity.
The remainder of the article deals with types and books for the blind,
appliances for educational work, employment, and biographical matter,
with a list of prominent blind people. See also, for literary men who
were blind, the articles on JOHN MILTON, WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT, and PHILIP
BOURKE MARSTON.
[Sidenote: The Deaf]
DEAF AND DUMB (Vol. 7, p. 880) is by the Rev. Arnold Hill Payne,
chaplain to the Oxford Diocesan Mission to the deaf and dumb, late
normal fellow of the National Deaf Mute College, Washington, D. C., and
author of many books on the subject. He points out the mistaken use of
the word “dumb”—“In the case of the deaf and dumb, as these words are
generally understood, dumbness is merely the result of ignorance in the
use of the voice, this ignorance being due to deafness.” After
discussing causes of deafness, the condition of the deaf in childhood,
their natural language, which the contributor thinks is “sign” rather
than purely oral, and their social status, he deals with education of
the deaf, giving an elaborate historical account including the “oral”
revival in Germany and the work in the United States of Dr. Thomas
Hopkins Gallaudet—see also the separate article on him and his two sons
(Vol. 11, p. 416)—and of the National Deaf-Mute College at Washington,
D. C. (on which see also the article WASHINGTON, D. C.). This
interesting article closes with a section on the blind-deaf, telling the
story of several remarkable cases in England less well-known and more
recent than Laura Bridgman or Helen Keller.
[Sidenote: Psychology]
This chapter began with a reference to the article on SOCIOLOGY with the
recommendation that it be used as a basis for the study of present-day
problems. The reader will often have heard vague allusions to sociology,
and his reading this article in the Britannica will certainly sharpen
and define his own idea of the meaning and the value of the science. Has
he not heard much oftener of psychology, and heard it mentioned as if it
were some sort of magic spell to charm away many of the difficulties of
our modern complex world? But has he a full comprehension of the meaning
of psychology and of the knowledge newly gained in regard to the
“psychology of the senses”? The corrective for any vagueness of ideas
about psychology is best found in the article PSYCHOLOGY (Vol. 22, p.
547) by Professor James Ward, whose articles for the Britannica have
been reprinted and used as text-books in schools and colleges all over
the country. Put in a few words, the lesson of psychology is that the
senses, sensations, thoughts and feelings, which, even when they are our
own, we too often speak of as if they were things apart and independent,
are subject to certain natural laws in much the same way as are the
forces treated by the science of physics. The reader who would study the
subject of psychology in the Britannica should make use of the analysis
of many articles in the chapter in this Guide _For Teachers_.
[Sidenote: Crime]
As with general education, special education of defectives, state
training of feeble-minded, and restraint of the insane, so with the
state’s attitude toward the criminal there has been in recent years a
great change which is still working toward full fruition, so that prison
administration, children’s courts, delinquency, probation, etc., are
live topics of interest.
Just as the whole new science of sociology was based by Spencer on
biology and on the Darwinian theory of evolution, so in this field of
delinquency a “science” has been devised called criminology by its
“inventor” Cesare Lombroso. The article LOMBROSO (Vol. 16, p. 936) in
the Britannica criticizes his theories as showing “an exaggerated
tendency to refer all mental facts to biological causes.” His theory of
a criminal type points to a “practical reform ... a classification of
offenders, so that the born criminal may receive a different kind of
punishment from the offender who is tempted into crime.” The article
CRIMINOLOGY (Vol. 7, p. 464), by Major Arthur Griffiths, Inspector of
Prisons, should be read carefully. It lists the supposed criminal traits
as follows:
Various brain and cerebral anomalies; receding foreheads; massive
jaws, prognathous chins; skulls without symmetry; ears long, large and
projecting; noses rectilinear, wrinkles strongly marked, even in the
young and in both sexes, hair abundant on the head, scanty on the
cheeks and chin; eyes feline, fixed, cold, glassy, ferocious; bad
repellent faces.... Other peculiarities are:—great width of the
extended arms, extraordinary ape-like agility; left-handedness as well
as ambi-dexterism; obtuse sense of smell, taste and sometimes of
hearing, although the eyesight is superior to that of normal
people.... So much for the anatomical and physiological peculiarities
of the criminal. There remain the psychological or mental
characteristics, so far as they have been observed. Moral
insensibility is attributed to him, a dull conscience that never
pricks and a general freedom from remorse. He is said to be generally
lacking in intelligence, hence his stupidity, the want of proper
precautions, both before and after an offence, which leads so often to
his detection and capture. His vanity is strongly marked and shown in
the pride taken in infamous achievements rather than personal
appearance.
Although Major Griffiths thinks that criminality is oftener due to
environment than to congenital defects, he closes his article with this
estimate of what has been accomplished by Lombroso and his followers:
The criminologists have strengthened the hands of administrators, have
emphasized the paramount importance of child-rescue and judicious
direction of adults, have held the balance between penal methods,
advocating the moralizing effect of open-air labour as opposed to
prolonged isolation, and have insisted upon the desirability of
indefinite detention for all who have obstinately determined to wage
perpetual war against society by the persistent perpetration of crime.
The article CRIME (Vol. 7, p. 447) is full of interesting statistics and
facts. It tells us that “the growth of criminals is greatly stimulated
where people are badly fed, morally and physically unhealthy, infected
with any forms of disease and vice,” and after proving by the records of
various countries that men everywhere are more addicted to crime than
are women, ends with this statement: “It has been well said that women
are less criminal according to the figures, because when a woman wants a
crime committed she can generally find a man to do it for her.”
Other important articles on the subject are DEPORTATION (Vol. 8, p. 56)
and PRISON (Vol. 22, p. 361). For English prison reforms, see also the
article on JOHN HOWARD and that on ELIZABETH FRY, with an outline of the
growth in Pennsylvania and New York (Auburn and Sing Sing), of the
method of solitary confinement and of its adoption in England, and of
the development in New York (see also the article on ELMIRA for the work
of Zebulon R. Brockway), and in Massachusetts (Concord), of distinct and
different treatment for first offenders.
[Sidenote: Children’s Courts]
JUVENILE OFFENDERS (Vol. 15, p. 613) describes the work of Charles
Dickens and others in England, the reform in Europe and in the United
States; the philanthropic criminal code proposed by EDWARD LIVINGSTON
(see the biographical article, Vol. 16, p. 811); the Randall’s Island
House of Refuge, the Elmira (N. Y.) Reformatory, the reformatory for
women at Sherborn, Massachusetts, and the George Junior Republic at
Freeville, New York, and its offshoots—see also the separate article
GEORGE JUNIOR REPUBLIC (Vol. 11, p. 749); and the Borstal scheme, a
modification of the American state reformatory system adopted in England
in 1902.
CHILDREN’S COURTS (Vol. 6, p. 140) calls attention to the origin of
these tribunals in the United States, in Massachusetts and Illinois, and
their success in Chicago, Indianapolis, Denver and Washington, leading
to their adoption in England; see also the article PROBATION (Vol. 22,
p. 404) in general and, for particular and local methods, the articles
on BIRMINGHAM (Vol. 3, p. 985), BOSTON (Vol. 4, p. 294), CHICAGO (Vol.
6, p. 124), COLORADO (Vol. 6, p. 722), EGYPT (Vol. 9, p. 29), ILLINOIS
(Vol. 14, p. 308), and UTAH (Vol. 27, p. 818). The articles on
individual states also contain detailed information about local penal
institutions of all kinds.
The reader should also study the articles POLICE (Vol. 21, p. 978),
FINGER PRINTS (Vol. 10, p. 376), IDENTIFICATION (Vol. 14, p. 287),
PUNISHMENT (Vol. 22, p. 653), CAPITAL PUNISHMENT (Vol. 5, p. 279),
GUILLOTINE (Vol. 12, p. 694), HANGING (Vol. 12, p. 917), and
ELECTROCUTION (Vol. 9, p. 210), the last by Professor Edward Anthony
Spitzka, the American authority on the subject. In the article on Utah,
already mentioned, the reader will find that “a person sentenced to
death may choose one of two methods of execution—hanging or shooting.”
[Sidenote: Alcohol]
If a respectable citizen of a century ago could return to earth he could
not fail to be greatly surprised at dinner, whether in a private home or
in a hotel, to see how much less alcoholic beverages are used, how much
lighter they are, and how much more common are other drinks. If he
“returned” to certain parts of the United States he would find that he
could get no alcohol except on a doctor’s prescription stating the
reason why the patient needed it, and he would learn that such a
prescription could be filled only once, and then only by a registered
pharmacist of good character. No matter to what place he came back, he
would find a constant interference with or supervision of the
manufacture, sale and consumption of alcoholic liquors on the part of
the government. He would probably wonder why the state should interfere
with private and personal liberty in such matters. We have already
pointed out that the state now _does_ interfere, and that this is one of
the distinguishing marks of the government of the day. For information
on this particular form of interference, its prevalence, its necessity,
and its advisability, the student may confidently turn to the
Britannica. The hygienic side of the question is outlined in the chapter
of this Guide on _Health and Disease_. The social or sociological side
claims our attention here. Read the article DRUNKENNESS (Vol. 8, p.
601), and for the relation between alcohol and mental disease, the
section _Toxic Insanity_ (Vol. 14, p. 609) in the article on INSANITY
already mentioned, and also NEUROPATHOLOGY (Vol. 19, p. 429); then the
article INEBRIETY, LAW OF (Vol. 14, p. 409); that on LIQUOR LAWS (Vol.
16, p. 759), with a special section referring to the United States,
which deals with local prohibition, state prohibition, public
dispensaries, and taxation; and for a general and elaborate summary of
the whole question the article TEMPERANCE (Vol. 26, p. 578) equivalent
to about 50 pages of this Guide, by Dr. Arthur Shadwell, author of
_Drink, Temperance and Legislation_. In the section on the _Use and
Abuse of Alcohol_ Dr. Shadwell summarizes the results of modern
scientific investigation of the abuse in its bearings upon crime,
poverty, insanity, mortality, longevity, and heredity.
In such articles as those on THEOBALD MATHEW (“Father Mathew”) (Vol. 17,
p. 886), NEAL DOW (Vol. 8, p. 456), JOHN B. GOUGH (Vol. 12, p. 282), and
FRANCES E. WILLARD (Vol. 28, p. 658) the reader will find biographies
relating to the temperance movement; and in the separate articles on
states there is information about state prohibition, local option, and
the state dispensary system.
[Sidenote: Heredity and Eugenics]
Dr. Shadwell’s remarks on the relation of alcoholism to heredity may
remind us that the very word “heredity” would seem strange to the
typical man of a century ago, whose return to life we have imagined. We
should be no more shocked by the occasional crudeness of his intimate
and excited phraseology than he would be at our frankness in discussing
even in mixed company such subjects as birth, reproduction, sexual
morality, the social evil and the white slave trade. The growth of
interest in these topics may be traced in part to Darwin, Huxley and
Mendel, to what they did to make biology a science. Read in the
Britannica the interesting story, in the article MENDELISM (Vol. 18, p.
115), of the investigations of Gregor Mendel, Abbot of Brünn, in his
cloister garden, in crossing peas and classifying the inheritance of
peculiarities. Then read the articles HEREDITY (Vol. 13, p. 530), by
Prof. Chalmers Mitchell, and HYBRIDISM (Vol. 14, p. 26), by the same
contributor, and turn to the articles EUGENICS (Vol. 9, p. 855) and SIR
FRANCIS GALTON (Vol. 11, p. 427), for an account of the attempt to found
a practical science to improve the breed of men.
Especially within the last few years has the public conscience been
aroused on the white slave traffic and prostitution, both in Great
Britain and the United States, and particularly in the great cities,
where this form of vice, if left under the jurisdiction of the police,
gives rise to a singularly dangerous form of corruption and to the
general disrepute of the defenders of public safety. The many important
aspects of the subject, which need not be rehearsed here, are to be
found in Dr. Shadwell’s article PROSTITUTION (Vol. 22, p. 457) and Dr.
Edmund Owen’s article VENEREAL DISEASES (Vol. 27, p. 983).
One of the remedies most commonly suggested for the evils of
prostitution in general and of the white slave trade in particular is a
minimum wage. Dr. Shadwell’s article on prostitution gives “excessively
laborious and ill-paid work” as only one of many secondary causes for
women’s taking to a life of evil repute. Indolence, love of excitement,
dislike of restraint, and abnormal sexual appetite, he counts as primary
causes; and among secondary causes he names the difficulty of finding
employment; harsh treatment at home, promiscuous living among the
overcrowded poor; overcrowding in factories; the example of luxury,
self-indulgence and loose manners set by the wealthy; demoralizing
literature and amusements; and the arts of profligate men. But the
subject of wages is an important one in itself, and as an introduction
to the study of the labour question, it may well be taken up here, even
if the efficacy of minimum-wage laws, or of any legislation, in
producing a higher sexual morality has been exaggerated.
[Sidenote: Wages and Labour]
Read the article WAGES (Vol. 28, p. 229, equivalent to 20 pages of this
Guide), by Joseph Shield Nicholson, professor of political economy at
Edinburgh University. The difficulty of an exact definition, and,
specifically, of one that distinguishes between “wages” and “profits,”
leads the author to adopt as the best the definition of Gen. Francis A.
Walker, the American economist, “the reward of those who are employed in
production with a view to the profit of their employers and are paid at
stipulated rates.” The distinction between a nominal and real wage is
based on the difference between the money value and the purchasing value
of the wage as affected by variation in the cost of living. Irregularity
of employment and other elements of uncertainty, such as liability to
accident or to occupational diseases, are factors to be considered in
estimating real wages. Professor Nicholson discusses the wage-fund
theory, corrects it by Adam Smith’s observation that wages are paid from
the product of labour; and treats “relative” wages, the state-regulation
of wages (which he does not consider feasible); poor relief in aid of
wages; factory legislation; trade unions; the effects of machinery on
wages; and the progress of the working-classes.
[Sidenote: Labour Legislation]
The subject of factory legislation brings us back to the general topic
of “state interference with private matters” as the old school of
political scientists would have called it. Two treatises in the
Britannica are important for the study of this subject—the general
article LABOUR LEGISLATION (Vol. 16, p. 7), equivalent to 70 pages of
this Guide, by Adelaide Mary Anderson, principal lady inspector of
factories to the British Home Office, and Carroll D. Wright, late U. S.
Commissioner of Labor; and the article EMPLOYERS’ LIABILITY AND
WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION (Vol. 9, p. 356), which is of peculiar interest
now that in the United States recent laws in regard to employers’
liability and workmen’s compensation have shown a change in legislative
theory and practice. Statutes of this kind have been passed by the
legislatures of several states where nothing of the sort would have been
attempted a generation ago, although legislatures have always been
readier than courts to approve radical laws, and have been far more
readily influenced by popular sentiment. After their passage they have
in some states been held unconstitutional, and in other states the
highest court has recognized them as valid; the decisions perhaps
depending to some extent on the attitude of the court toward the opposed
claims of capital and labour. Here as elsewhere the student should
remember that much information of a local character is to be found in
the articles on different states of the Union. The article LABOR DAY
(Vol. 16, p. 6) describes an official recognition of the claims of
labour in the United States.
[Sidenote: Organized Labour]
On labour organizations and their work see the articles: TRADE UNIONS
(Vol. 27, p. 140), and particularly the section _Economic Effects of
Trade Unionism_, and the section on trade unions in the United States,
by Carroll D. Wright, late U. S. Commissioner of Labor, who deals with
such topics as railway brotherhoods, national unions, the
“International,” Knights of Labor, American Railway Union, federations
of labour, especially the American Federation of Labor, and estimated
strength of trade unions. For the earlier history of trade unions or
similar organizations see TRADE ORGANIZATION (Vol. 27, p. 135), GILDS
(Vol. 12, p. 14), LIVERY COMPANIES (Vol. 16, p. 809), and APPRENTICESHIP
(Vol. 2, p. 228).
STRIKES AND LOCK OUTS, particularly the sections _Economic Effects_
(Vol. 25, p. 1028), _Important British Strikes and Lock Outs_ (p. 1029),
and on strikes in the United States (p. 1033),—the last by Dr. Carroll
D. Wright, who describes, among others, the Homestead strike of 1892,
the Pullman strike of 1894, the steel strike of 1901, and the coal
strike of 1902. For these and other strikes see the local articles on
such storm-centres as Homestead, Pullman, Leadville, Cripple Creek,
Chicago.
See also BOYCOTT (Vol. 4, p. 353); and INJUNCTION (Vol. 14, p. 570),
and, for a “classic” use of the injunction against boycott, the article
on WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT (Vol. 26, p. 354);
ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION (Vol. 2, p. 331) for attempts by the state
to regulate the relations of capital and labour at variance.
Related topics which have not been analyzed here will be found in the
articles UNEMPLOYMENT (Vol. 27, p. 578), LABOUR EXCHANGE (Vol. 16, p.
7), and VAGRANCY (Vol. 27, p. 837).
[Sidenote: Immigration]
Closely connected with the American labour problems, since growing
American industries demand a supply of workmen that cannot be filled by
natural increase in the population, is the question of immigration. The
article MIGRATION (Vol. 18, p. 427) is divided into two parts, the
second dealing with migration in zoology. The first section, dealing
with emigration and immigration and internal migration of populations,
is for the most part by Richmond Mayo-Smith, late professor of political
economy and social science in Columbia University, New York City. It is
appropriate that the subject should be treated by an American and with
special attention to the United States, since this country owes its
origin to an immigration three centuries ago; as the presence of many
recent immigrants puts a strain on our powers of assimilation and gives
rise to other serious problems; and as internal migrations are markedly
affecting social conditions. In a preliminary historical sketch the
author deals with: prehistoric migrations in search of booty, through
the desire of the stronger to take possession of the lands of the
weaker, or by pressure of population on the food supply; Greek and Roman
colonization; the German conquest; minor migratory movements such as the
introduction of Flemish weavers to England and the forced migration of
the Huguenots from France; the great colonization period after the
discovery of America; and modern migration—characterized by its
magnitude, by the change of the emigrant’s political allegiance, and by
the circumstance that it is a movement of “individuals seeking their own
good without state direction or aid.” In a statistical discussion of
immigration to the United States (Vol. 18, p. 430) there is much
valuable information. “At first the Irish and Germans were most
prominent. Of later years, the Italians, Czechs, Hungarians and Russians
were numerously represented.” Immigration to other countries, especially
Canada and South America; the balance of migration and temporary
emigration; and the effects of migration on the country “from which” and
the country “to which”—are topics considered in the article, which also
discusses the restriction of immigration. As to Asiatic immigration see
CALIFORNIA (especially p. 20, Vol. 5), SAN FRANCISCO (p. 148, Vol. 24),
and COOLIE (Vol. 7, p. 77). See also the article UNITED STATES, section
_Population and Social Conditions_ (p. 634, Vol. 27), and, in separate
articles on states and larger cities of the United States, the analysis
of foreign-born population, that of foreign parentage, etc. For
instance, in the article MASSACHUSETTS (Vol. 17, p. 854), there is a
most interesting account of the varying sources of immigration and of
the replacing of Irish labour by Canadians and Italians. Boston is the
second immigrant port of the country. A large part of the transatlantic
immigrants pass speedily to permanent homes in the West, but by far the
greater part of the Canadian influx remains there.
The article on NEW YORK CITY (p. 617 of Vol. 19) remarks that