the trouble to expose the falsity of the pretensions of any isolated
specimen of a douser or of a spirit medium. However that may be, some
years ago, when I was staying in an ancient castle in the North of
England, my hostess procured the attendance of a youth who had a great
reputation as a douser, in order that I might test his pretensions.
The youth arrived with his father, and had half a dozen =Y=-shaped
hazel twigs ready for use. The party staying in the castle met him on
the terrace, a broad gravel walk which surrounded the battlements. I
asked him to walk round the castle and mark in our presence the spots
at which his twig indicated the presence of subterranean water. The
circuit was somewhat less than a quarter of a mile, and he indicated
eleven spots. We placed obvious marks at each of these spots. I
then took him into the castle and, aided by a friend, carefully
blindfolded him with pads of cotton-wool over each orbit and a large
silk handkerchief. We then led him out by a circuitous route on to
the terrace and asked him to try again to indicate the spots which he
had just discovered. He walked along as before and stopped at several
spots, saying that his twig indicated water where he stood. He also
made futile efforts by turning and throwing back his head, to catch
a glimpse of some of the marks we had placed at the spots previously
indicated by him. But the pads of cotton-wool effectually prevented
him from seeing anything. In no case (as a large party of onlookers
testified) were the spots indicated on his second circuit identical
with, or even near to, those marked in the first circuit. His father
said he was "upset" by the blindfolding. We then removed the bandage,
and took him into a large courtyard beneath and across which from one
corner to another a large subterranean conduit ran. We had arranged
that the water should be running in abundance through this conduit. We
told him that such a subterranean channel existed. He was left free
and undisturbed, and his eyes were not bandaged. But he failed to
discover the conduit altogether, although he crossed it several times;
and he ended by declaring that his twig indicated subterranean water
at a spot remote from the conduit, where some large vats stood for the
purpose of storing rain-water! All this, of course, tended to prove the
incompetence of the youth as a douser, and to make it probable that
such successes as he had obtained elsewhere (and my hostess stated that
they were very numerous and remarkable, and vouched for by members of
her own family) were due to imposture.
But a single case like this does not bring one very far on the way
to deciding the question as to whether there are persons who are
genuinely and successfully guided to the discovery of subterranean
water by strange sensations and by spasmodic movements of their limbs
or of hazel-twigs held in the hands, due (as they declare) to an
obscure influence which emanates from subterranean water and from
buried metal. The fact is that we have in the belief in the guidance
of the douser by occult influences a troublesome case of the fallacy
in reasoning expressed by the words, "post hoc ergo propter hoc,"
or, to put it in English, "after this, therefore caused by this."
Primitive man found that this mode of forming a conclusion very often
led to a correct discovery of the connexion between two events, and he
adopted it as a ready method of guidance, although it was frequently
fallacious. It has taken ages, literally ages, to make people discard
this mode of arriving at a conclusion in serious matters, and it is
still usual in less vital affairs. To show that B followed upon the
occurrence of A, even once, is, of course, a proper and useful way of
forming a guess or a suggestion as to the cause of B, but still more
is your guess legitimate if the sequence has occurred several times
in your experience. But it is only a guess: a conclusion must not be
accepted on that basis, although lazy and hasty people do adopt such
conclusions. You must find out the details of the nature of A and also
of B, and if possible how the one is connected with the other. And if
you cannot do that you can still establish your conclusion and confirm
your guess by showing that B _invariably_ follows upon A, or that (in
a long experience) only when A has been present, and never when A has
not been present, has B occurred. If you cannot prove the truth of your
guess by this experimental demonstration of the exclusion of other
causes than A or by the experimental demonstration of the invariable
occurrence of B after A has occurred, then you have to seek for
evidence of a real connexion between A and B, though not an invariable
one, by collecting a vast number of instances of the occurrence of B
and finding out whether A has preceded it in such a large proportion
of cases (as compared with those in which B has occurred without the
previous occurrence of A) that the cases in which B follows A cannot be
considered as accidental, but indicate a real causal relation of A to B.
This is always a difficult undertaking, whether we start with the
guess that B is caused by A or that it is not caused by A. In the case
of water-finding, water is found at depths of 30 feet to 100 feet
and more below the surface by engineers without the aid of "dousers"
every day, and this is so frequent and regular a proceeding that the
percentage of cases in which dousers find water, that is to say in
which B--the discovery of water--follows A (A being the employment of
a supposed sensitive douser with or without his twig) does not--so far
as I am able to judge without strict statistical evidence--exceed the
percentage of successes in searching and digging for water by ordinary
intelligent men without the introduction of A.
CHAPTER XL
BIRTH-MARKS AND TELEGONY
TWO widely-spread "beliefs"--in regard to the complicated and not
generally familiar subject of the reproduction of animals--are, in
addition to that dealt with in the last chapter, examples of the
unjustified and primitive mode of forming a conclusion known as "post
hoc ergo propter hoc." I refer, firstly, to the belief (which I have
already mentioned) in the causation of what are called "birth-marks"
by "maternal impressions," by which is meant the seeing of unusual and
impressive things by the mother when with child; and, secondly, to the
belief that a thoroughbred mare can be so affected or infected by the
sire (say a zebra) of one foal as to convey to the foal of a later sire
(say, a thoroughbred like herself) marks (such as stripes on the legs)
which were not present in the second sire, though present in the first
sire. This supposed occurrence is called "telegony," and is by some
persons supposed to occur in dogs, cattle, and other animals, including
man, as well as in the horse.
There is little support in ordinary experience for the belief that
birth-marks are caused by maternal impressions, although some of those
who are concerned in a professional way with breeding operations cling
to it. In very ancient times we find that there was a belief in it,
as shown by the story of the patriarch Jacob, who, wishing to obtain
the birth of spotted or parti-coloured lambs from a herd of sheep,
placed in front of the breeding ewes stakes or rods from which he had
removed the bark in rings, so as to make them parti-coloured. He was
supposed to have been successful in this way in impressing the visual
sense of the maternal ewes with "parti-colouration," and the belief was
that they in consequence produced dappled or parti-coloured lambs. The
belief, though not general, is widespread among simple folk that such
influences can and do act on animals, and it has been, and is by some,
similarly held that a human mother may be influenced by surrounding
objects, so that if her surroundings are beautiful she will produce a
beautiful child. There is absolutely no ground for this belief--based
upon experiment. It is merely an unreasoning assumption of "after this,
therefore because of this," based upon the incomplete observation of a
few accidental cases of vague coincidence and a tenacious clinging to
the belief that it is so because it is difficult to prove that it is
not so. No trustworthy investigation or experiment on the subject is on
record.
But this unwarranted, untested belief, originating among barbarous
peoples, has led further, owing to the inveterate love of marvels
still common among us, to the notion (surviving to the present day)
that the irregular coloured or obscure marks sometimes found on the
skin of a child at birth, and vaguely resembling an animal or a fruit,
or what not, are due to the mother having recently seen, under some
sudden and startling circumstances, the object which the "birth-mark"
on the child resembles. Thus we have the following stories related in
a recent publication ("Sex Antagonism," by Walter Heape, F.R.S.). The
author holds that this strange influence of "maternal impressions"
is possible--a matter of comparatively small importance, since the
real question is not as to the "possibility" but simply (as in a whole
series of beliefs as to more or less improbable occurrences) whether
there is or is not sufficient evidence that the connexion and influence
believed in actually exists. Mr. Heape relates (without giving any
detailed evidence whatever in support of the conclusion which he
accepts) the supposed case of a red "mark" like a lizard found on a
new-born child's breast being "produced" by the fall of a lizard from
the ceiling (the event happened in China) on to its mother's breast
shortly before the child's birth. Another case is that of a woman whose
husband was brought home from work with his arm lacerated by machinery.
Her child was born soon afterwards, and is stated to have had marks on
one arm "similar to" those the mother saw on the corresponding arm of
her husband. Another story is that of a lady who had a great craving
for raspberries before her child was born, and accordingly bore a child
with a red raspberry mark on its body!
In no case does Mr. Heape give any picture of the birth-mark and the
thing supposed to be represented by it, nor state that he has seen
either the mark or a picture of it. In no case is the statement of
the mother as to her having been "influenced" as described in the
narration, tested or examined in any way.
These and similar stories are related to-day, and such stories have
been related from time immemorial. But they are always "hear-say." The
witnesses and the facts are never carefully examined, and the degree
of closeness of the agreement between the mark and its supposed cause
are never really demonstrated. Nor has anyone undertaken a statistical
examination with the view of showing that the vague agreement of the
mark with the arresting object seen by the mother is anything more
than an accidental coincidence, nor (in regard to many such stories)
has it been proved that the mother really did see or notice any such
terrifying object as she afterwards declares (and possibly thinks) she
did. Moreover, no one has carefully and scientifically made crucial
experiments with animals, similar to that of the patriarch Jacob. The
experiments and their record would not be difficult with animals.
Though some farmers may believe that such influences do operate on
their breeding dams, there is no known or recognized application
of Jacob's method to the production of desired form or colour in
domesticated animals. We are not concerned with "possibilities." What
is needed is a series of demonstrative experiments, or critical cases.
And these are, as yet, not forthcoming.
Telegony is the name given to the hypothesis that the offspring of
a known sire sometimes inherit characters from a previous mate of
their dam. The name means reproduction (Greek, gonos) influenced by
a remote agent (Greek, tele = from afar). There is no question about
"possibility" here. Such an "infection" of a dam by a previous mate
is not improbable. According to Darwin "farmers in South Brazil are
convinced that mares which have once borne mules, when subsequently
put to horses, are extremely liable to produce colts striped like a
mule." On the other hand, the Baron de Parana states that he has many
relatives and friends who have large establishments for the rearing of
mules where they obtain from 400 to 1000 mules in a year. In all these
establishments, after two or three crossings of the mare and ass, the
breeders cause the mare to be put to a horse; yet the pure-bred foals
so produced have never in a single case resembled either an ass or a
mule.
A celebrated case to which Darwin attached importance was that of Lord
Morton's mare, reported to the Royal Society in 1820. This mare, after
bearing a hybrid by a quagga (a striped equine related to the zebra)
produced, to a black Arabian horse, three foals showing a number of
stripes, and in one of them more stripes were present than in the
quagga hybrid. This seems at first sight strong evidence in favour
of "infection" of the mare by the early quagga mate. But it appears
that stripes are frequently seen in high-caste Arab horses, and colts
cross-bred from such and other breeds of horse sometimes present far
more distinct bars across the legs and other zebra-like markings than
were seen in the late offspring of Lord Morton's Arabian mare. The fact
appears to be that all the living species of the horse family (horses,
asses, quaggas, and zebras) are descended from an ancestry of "striped"
equines, and are liable occasionally to "throw back" to their striped
ancestry, more or less.
Professor Cossar Ewart determined some years ago to submit the matter
to direct experiment, and has related his results in a book ("The
Penicuik Experiments," 1899). The South African equine called the
quagga, which was that used by Lord Morton, having become extinct,
Professor Ewart made use of a richly striped Burchell's zebra. Thirty
mares put to this animal produced seventeen hybrids, and subsequently
these mares, put to horse-stallions, produced twenty pure-bred foals.
All the zebra hybrids were richly and very distinctly striped. Of the
twenty later pure-bred horse-foals from the same mares three only
presented stripe-like markings at birth, and these were few and
indistinct. They disappeared when the foal's coat was shed. Their
mothers were Highland mares. But the value of the faint striping in
these three instances as evidence in support of telegony is at once
destroyed by the fact that Professor Ewart obtained at the same time
pure-bred foals from similar Highland mares which had never seen a
zebra. Two of these pure-bred Highland foals showed stripes at birth,
and one acquired stripes later; and further, whilst the stripes on the
foals born after hybrids had been produced by their mothers disappeared
with the foal's coat, the stripes on the three pure-bred colts whose
mothers had never been near a zebra persisted for a longer period.
Similar experiments confirmed these results, showing that traces of
striping are no more likely to occur on the offspring of a mare which
has previously produced a mule with a zebra or an ass, than on one
whose dam has neither seen nor been near to a zebra or an ass. Lord
Morton's case thus falls to the ground.
Breeders of dogs are (or were) even more thoroughly convinced of the
fact of telegony than breeders of horses. But Sir Everett Millais,
who devoted thirty years to the breeding of dogs and experiments on
this question, states that he has never seen a case of telegony. And
recent experiments of the most definite kind support his conclusion.
Dalmatians, deerhounds, and retrievers have been used in these
experiments. Many such experiments in telegony are accidentally or
unwittingly made every year with dogs. An undesired crossing of
two breeds takes place, but when subsequent pure breeding takes
place no "telegonic" infection of the mother is observed. Cases
believed to be due to telegony have on examination proved to be due
to the carelessness of stablemen, who have allowed a dog to escape
temporarily from the kennels or to enter them uninvited. The men have
attributed the mongrels so begotten to telegony in order to conceal
their negligence.
Another curious case was that of a rickety spaniel puppy, which was
exhibited a few years ago at the Zoological Society and believed by the
exhibitor to owe its bandy legs to "telegonic" infection of the mother
by a dachshund, with which she was supposed to have mated a year or
more before being put to the father of the spaniel. Its true nature was
at once recognized by the experts present, the bandy legs being those
caused by "rickets," and not like those of the well-known dachshund
breed.
It appears that the explanations widely prevalent of many apparently
strange things discussed in the preceding chapters, such as live
toads buried in rocks, the water-finder's mystic rod, the coincidence
of birth-marks and maternal impressions, and the inheritance of
offspring from a previous mate of their dam, are hasty and unverified
suppositions, which have never been properly tested, and that when the
wonder-provoking statements made and the actual facts in question are
properly and sufficiently examined, according to the rules of evidence
and common sense, it is discovered that the assumption of occult or
exceptional causes in explanation of such strange things are not
justified, but that these strange things owe their strangeness in large
part to the incorrect and incomplete observation of those who report
them, and to that love of marvel and mystery which, like hope, springs
eternal in the human breast.
It is a remarkable proof of the reality of the belief in
telegony--though not a proof of the reality of telegony--that amongst
breeders of horses and dogs the selling value of a dam which has borne
young to an inferior sire or to one of a distinct species, is largely
diminished as compared with that of a dam which has been mated with
a first-rate sire of her own breed. Darwin himself was led, by his
inquiries into a similar occurrence in plants, to favour the notion
that a sire could so "infect" a mare that her offspring by a later sire
would in some instances show traces of the characters of the earlier
sire. The parts of a plant which form the coverings of the fertilized
ovule, the "coats" of the seed and the seed-case and fruit, are, of
course, parts of the maternal plant. In each of the ovules which grow
in the central part of a flower (the so-called "pistil") is an egg
cell like that of an animal. This is "fertilized" by the pollen-grains
which are brought by wind or by insects from the "stamens" of another
flower. Each pollen-grain thus brought to the surface of the pistil
elongates into a delicate filament, and penetrates into it, and so
reaches an egg cell, with which it fuses. Then the surrounding tissues
grow and swell up, forming the seed coats and the fruit. They are parts
of the egg-cell-producing or "mother" flower. Thus the pulp and "rind"
or skin of an orange is part of the mother plant, not of the germs or
young embedded in the "pips." It is found that if an orange-flower is
deliberately fertilized by placing on its pistil the pollen-grains of
a lemon-flower, not only are the ovules of the orange fertilized, but
the surrounding structures, which enlarge to form the fruit and are
parts of the orange plant quite distinct from the ovules, also become
affected by the pollen. In one well-observed case when an orange-flower
was fertilized by a gardener with the pollen of a lemon-flower, the
skin or rind of the resulting fruit was found to exhibit stripes of
perfectly characterized lemon peel (having the colour and flavour of
lemon peel), alternating with stripes of the proper orange peel.
The same thing has been observed in apples, melons, orchids,
rhododendrons, grapes, maize, and peas, when one variety has been
fertilized by the pollen of another, or when one species has been
fertilized by the pollen of an allied but distinct species. The fruit
in these cases (not simply the germ or young plant within it) has been
found in some instances to have some of the colour, flavour, or shape
and marking of the fertilizing variety or species blended or else mixed
like a patchwork with that characteristic of the fertilized variety or
species. The egg-producing or mother plant not merely has its ovules
fertilized, but its tissues for some distance around are infected and
made to take on--in parts of their living, growing substance--some of
the quality of the fertilizing species. A similar thing occurs, though
rarely, when cuttings of one plant are grafted on to another. The
living tissue either of graft or of stock, and sometimes of both, is
affected by the fusion with it of the tissue of the second plant united
with it. And this appears to be a kind of "infection"--living particles
passing from one to the other, and producing a mosaic or patchwork of
the two kinds of living substance characteristic of each of the united
plants.
If an individual flower were to produce in a second year after its
first fertilization and seed production a second set of ovules which
could be fertilized by a kind of pollen differing from the first,
it would not be surprising did that second set of ovules sometimes
show characteristics due to the infection of the maternal tissues by
the pollen used in the first year. But flowers do not survive and
produce ovules in a second year. They are completely used up each year,
and drop off as "fruits" from the plant which bears them. With many
animals, however, the facts are otherwise. The same mother produces
from the ovary year after year successive ovules, and it would thus
be quite intelligible that the fertilizing sperm of one year should
frequently have so affected or infected the egg-producing organ or
ovary as to result in the conveyance to the later crop of egg cells
separated from the ovary, some of the qualities of the earlier male
parent. These considerations warrant the guess or "hypothesis" of
telegony in animals. But all such guesses must be put to the proof,
and not accepted simply because there is no reason to conclude that
they are impossible. As things at present stand, there is no evidence,
resulting either from deliberate experiment or from exact observation
and record of the natural breeding of animals, to justify us in
holding, as an established fact, that the offspring of a given sire
and dam is, even in rare cases, affected by the previous mating of the
dam with another sire. Naturalists would be deeply interested in the
production of even one indisputable instance of this occurrence.
In connexion with this matter it is to be noted that the sperm of one
drone (her only mate) is retained in an internal sac or pouch, alive
and active, in the queen bee, for some four or five years, and is used
by her in successive seasons for fertilizing her eggs. Similarly it
is recorded by the late Lord Avery that a queen ant kept by him for
fourteen years, without access to a male ant, retained to the end of
that period the power of producing eggs which developed into worker
ants. He concluded that the sperm received fourteen years before by
this queen from a male ant remained all this time alive and ready
for use in her sperm-receptacle or sac, since it has been shown that
unfertilized eggs in these and allied insects produce only drones
(males).
Many strange and unwarranted beliefs persist because mankind prefers to
accept an astonishing assertion as true rather than take the trouble to
see whether it is so or not. Thus all antiquity and the later learned
world wrangled about the very existence of Homer's city of Troy, until
Schliemann said, "Don't talk! Dig!" and with childlike simplicity and
directness uncovered ancient Troy. Thus the belief as to St. Swithin
and his forty days of rain has been shown by the simple examination of
the actual records of rainfall to be very far from the truth, since,
though we often have a wet period in July and August, St. Swithin's
Day is nearly as often free from rain in a wet season as the reverse.
Forty days of rain very rarely indeed, in the South of England, have
followed a wet St. Swithin's Day. The most amusing instance of the
pricking of one of these bubbles of belief arose from the inquiry by
some of the sham philosophers at the Court of King Charles II as to
how it comes about that if a jar holding water be weighed, and then
a live fish be placed therein without spilling any of the water, and
the jar, with the fish and the water in it, be again weighed, there
is found to be no increase in the observed weight. King Charles, it
is said, made a bet that this was not so, and that there was nothing
to explain. He referred the matter for decision to the newly founded
"Royal Society for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge," which at other
times he had asked to give him information as to the magic properties
of the unicorn's horn and the cause of the movements of the recently
imported "sensitive or humble plant." The believers in the marvellous
disappearance of the weight of a fish placed in a bowl of water held
forth at great length and gave ingenious reasons as to why this is
so. But the King said, "Don't chatter; make trial!" And the weighing
was done, in the King's presence, by some of the Fellows of the Royal
Society. It was found that the weight of the jar with its contained
water was increased when the fish was placed therein by exactly the
number of ounces which the fish weighed when placed separately in
the balance. So the King won his bet, and the sham philosophers were
silenced. The whole spirit of science, as contrasted with that of
superstition and ignorance, is summed up by the Royal Society's motto,
"Nullius in verba" (on no man's assertion!), and the King's command,
"Don't chatter; make trial!"
CHAPTER XLI
HOW TO PROMOTE SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY BY MONEY
THE fact that five years ago Mr. Otto Beit, the brother of the late
Mr. Alfred Beit, not only carried out the latter's intention of giving
£50,000 to the promotion of research in connexion with the study of
disease and the mastery of its causes, but added £150,000 on his own
account to the amount originally proposed, produced great satisfaction
among scientific men, and also in that large body of the public which,
at the present day, understands something of the importance to the
community of the minute and thorough study of disease, of its mode
of access to man, and of the possibilities, which every day become
brighter and clearer, of getting rid of it altogether. All honour
and gratitude are due to Mr. Beit for his generous gift and for his
wise appreciation of the good which can be done by proper application
of such a fund. I have reason to know and to value the large-minded
interest in science which was shown by the late Mr. Alfred Beit, since
he gave me £1000, some twelve years ago, towards the expenses of
expeditions which I was organizing for the investigation of the natural
history of Lake Tanganyika,--expeditions which have yielded important
scientific results, and have but recently exhausted the fund then
collected.
It has often occurred to me that wealthy men who wish to devote large
sums of money to the promotion of scientific research find difficulty
in carrying out their intentions, owing to the fact that they do not
know enough about the methods and conditions of scientific discovery
to enable them to form a definite independent judgment as to how to
assign their money, so as to make sure that it shall really be employed
in the most effective way towards the end they have in view--namely,
the increase of scientific discovery. They naturally have some doubts
as to whether the old (or even the new) Universities can help them as
trustees of the money when they see the importance attached by the
former to antiquated methods of teaching and examination and observe
their traditional cultivation of certain favoured studies, with a
minimum of activity in research and discovery. They mistrust special
societies or individuals as advisers in the matter, and sometimes
finally spend the money which they had destined to be the means of
furthering scientific discovery upon a costly and ill-considered
architectural monstrosity dedicated to science, but of little help to
its progress.
In past times various schemes have been adopted by benevolent men
for bequeathing or giving their money so as to promote scientific
discovery. Very generally there has been a certain amount of confusion
between two distinct purposes--namely, that of creating new knowledge
(the discovery of previously unknown things and new processes), and
that of spreading existing knowledge amongst an increased proportion
of the community. An admirable endowment for the latter purpose is
that of Mr. Smithson, a member of the family of the present Duke
of Northumberland, which was refused by the British Government for
peculiar reasons, and conveyed by that gentleman to trustees in
the United States of America about a hundred years ago, where the
Smithsonian Institution has vastly aided the spread of science. Another
valuable endowment which has been administered by special trustees for
a still longer period is that of the celebrated physician Radcliffe,
to whom we owe the scientific and medical library, an astronomical
observatory, and travelling fellowships in the University of Oxford.
The greatest sum dedicated to scientific research in England of late
years is the noble gift of a quarter of a million sterling made by Lord
Iveagh to the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. There have been
not a few generous donors of smaller sums for like purposes.
An inquiry was set on foot a few years ago in America in order to
obtain the opinions of those who had experience of scientific research
and the institutions intended to promote it in different countries,
as to the best methods to adopt in order to effect such promotion. I
do not know whether any report was published, but I remember that I
was consulted on the subject by the late Professor Simon Newcomb, a
foreign member of the Royal Society and one of the most distinguished
scientific discoverers in the United States. I am quite sure that no
general agreement or conclusion on the subject has been arrived at.
So far as I can see, whenever any high-minded philanthropist desires
to devote in this country a large sum of money to the promotion of
scientific discovery, he is liable to come under the influence of
highly respectable and eminent persons who, although they have no
acquaintance with the nature of scientific discovery and the way in
which it actually takes place, do not hesitate to fix up a scheme based
on some antiquated and mistaken model, which is accepted with simple
faith by the benevolent donor.
Scientific research is a delicate plant, and the secret of the way
in which it may be nurtured has not been revealed to dignitaries and
officials. It is interesting to note some of the methods which have
been tried with the object of nurturing scientific discovery. In every
case the donor has chosen or created an electing body or trustees of
which I will say more below. He has directed this body to expend his
gift with a view to the promotion of scientific discovery in one of
the following ways: (1) in awarding prizes for discoveries made; (2)
in terminable stipends to junior and senior workers selected by the
trustees and called scholars or fellows, the stipends being given on
condition of their holders devoting themselves for a few years to
the attempt to make discoveries; (3) in permanent salaries to tried
men, who are thus paid as professors or directors of laboratories and
museums; (4) in providing specially designed buildings and apparatus
for research, but no salaries for the workers; (5) in providing, on
whatever scale the fund given permits, groups consisting of a professor
or director, two or more assistants, attendants, building, apparatus,
and the annual income necessary for materials of investigation and
maintenance of the establishment. As to the trustees, or boards
of electors, chosen by the donor, they are often some established
scientific society or some university, or the board may be specially
appointed by him. The last is the best sort of body, if properly
constituted, but not unfrequently the perplexed promoter of scientific
discovery finds himself assenting to the constitution of what is called
"a representative body"--say, a bishop, a town councillor, a Secretary
of State, a judge, and a university professor, with other members to
be nominated by himself or his heirs. Such a board fails from a want of
knowledge.
The methods of applying the income provided by the donor are not
always such as to produce any marked result in the direction desired
by him. It is generally agreed among scientific workers and experts
that the giving of prizes or rewards for scientific discovery does
not tend to increase the output of discoveries, however carefully and
justly awarded. Though such an award as the £8000 or £10,000 of the
Nobel prizes is a very agreeable compliment to the man so honoured,
and often richly deserved, no one would urge a would-be promoter of
scientific discovery to devote his gift to the foundation of prizes.
And so, too, with regard to scholarships or fellowships, it is very
generally and rightly held that they do little or nothing in promoting
scientific discovery when they are small in value and are only to be
held for two or three years. When a young man has taken his university
degree in science or medicine a scholarship or fellowship of £250 a
year for three years offers no inducement to him, if he is an able man,
to abandon his regular professional career. If he accepts it, he will
have had no time to go far on the path of discovery before it comes
to an end, and he will find at the end of his three years that he has
lost that amount of time so far as his profession is concerned, and
that there is no life post or career open to him in the line in which
he has spent three years--namely, that of a scientific investigator.
As a rule, able men will not be drawn off in this way from their
professions, but inferior men may be.
The man, on the other hand, who is specially gifted with the power
of scientific discovery will not be affected by such temporary
fellowships. He will enter on the career of discovery with or
without such inducements. What such a man (and he is the only sort
of man who matters) really requires, and should find open to him, is
an assured career. This must take the form in the first place of a
smaller post as assistant to a great discoverer, tenable for twenty
years if need be, and subsequently a life post, with laboratory and
assistants, when he has proved his possession of the discoverer's
quality. Hence it is that what the benevolent millionaire who wishes
to promote scientific discovery should do is to provide life posts,
"professorships" or "directorships," for the really great discoverers,
who exist often in cramped conditions. They should be of the value of
£1500 to £3000 a year--not too large a stipend in view of the incomes
earned by successful professional men and assigned by Government
to judges, bishops, colonial governors, senior civil servants, and
politicians--with two or three assistantships of £150 to £500 a year
attached, to be filled up by nominations made by the professor himself
as vacancies occur. A sum of £7500 a year, that which Mr. Otto Beit
has so generously given, would pay for one professor, with three
assistants, attendants, and interest on building and maintenance fund.
Of course, if such a sum were offered to an existing institution
where buildings and other conveniences are already provided, two
research professors and their assistants could be paid for where one
only would be possible if building and service had to be provided.
There are buildings and laboratories in London and elsewhere
provided by beneficent founders without stipends for directors and
assistants, and there are already a good many young graduates drawing
terminable inadequate stipends in succession to one another from great
foundations. The difficulty is to bring about the combination of
adequate funds for the chief and for the graduated minor posts, and for
a well-equipped laboratory. When that is done, as it sometimes, though
rarely, is, the only further difficulty is how to choose a real man, an
inspired, inspiring discoverer. There is only one way.
Real discoverers are extremely rare--great ones are recognized
about once in fifty years in any one large branch of science. There
may be others wandering about--undiscovered discoverers. The only
people who can discover them are men like themselves. Hence, in
German universities and all wisely managed institutions for the
promotion of scientific discovery, they give the power of choosing new
discoverers to those discoverers already belonging to the university
or institution, and they take care that all the electors are vitally
interested for the honour, credit, and pecuniary success of their
university. These conditions can be arranged and brought into healthy
action by care and understanding. But the whole fabric may go to
pieces, and jobbery and jealousy prevail (as has sometimes happened in
England) if care is not taken to identify the personal interests of
the electors (brother professors) with the honest exercise of their
capacity to choose a real discoverer to fill a vacancy when it occurs,
or if an ignorant council of "superior persons" is allowed to interfere.
To find these great discoverers is, indeed, no light task. They have
to be looked for by the State, firstly, in the primary schools;
the net has to be drawn and the minor fishes allowed to escape,
whilst the strong and promising are sent on to high schools. Then
again, after further sifting, some are passed on to the special
college, then a selection to the university, and at last one or two
a year may be chosen as assistants to an established and inspiring
discoverer. Seven, ten, or fifteen years later one out of all his
fellows and predecessors is recognized as the incomparable teacher
and discoverer--the inspirer of others, the one great man of half a
century. He must be chosen by his colleagues, his fellow-workers, not
by political wire-pullers nor by any variety of social "Bumble." He is
given laboratories and assistants, and men come to consult him, to sit
under him, work for him, from all parts of the world. Louis Pasteur
was such a man. Huxley pointed out by what a vast public expenditure
Pasteur was gradually sifted out from his fellows, and made professor
in the Normal School of Paris. Of course, a good many inferior people
got a share of the training provided, and did some unimportant things;
but if we put them aside it is perfectly true (as a calculation of the
expenses of the whole network of State-supported schools and colleges
and bursaries through which he passed will show) that the capture or
discovery of Pasteur cost the French nation about £25,000,000. He was
worth it, not only to France, but to every other nationality--and more,
too, more than can be measured by gold. His name, honoured throughout
the world on account of the splendid discoveries associated with it,
gave self-respect, courage, and healthy pride to France at a time when
she had cruelly suffered. Ten years ago the most popular newspaper in
France took a "plebiscite" to determine who, in the general estimation
of the French people, was the greatest Frenchman of the nineteenth
century--the century which included the first Napoleon, Victor
Hugo, Gambetta. The vote was given by some millions, and resulted
in a majority for Louis Pasteur. Would Englishmen have shown such
discernment? Such a man is absolutely necessary as the head of any
great institute which exists for the purpose of scientific discovery.
Such men, smaller it may be, but of the same inspiring quality, are
the only men fit to be university professors. It is because there are
still such men at the Institut Pasteur that it remains a great seat of
discovery. It is because they have not such men, and that there is no
intelligent attempt to get them, that many wealthy institutions in our
own country fail to produce scientific fruit.
INDEX
Abies, the genus of the Silver Fir, 317
Acorns, sea-, 100, 110
Actinia mesembryanthemum, a common sea-anemone, 85, 86
living in an aquarium for fifty years, 86
African animals, preservation of, 20
Alchemists and the divining-rod, 385
Aldeburgh, amber to be bought there, 74
the great pebble beach at, 55
Alpine flowers, 161
reason of strong colour of, 167, 168
Amber, 71-76
chemical nature of, 75
insects in, 73
uses of, 73, 74
Amber-routes, 70
Ambleteuse, once a great harbour, 51
Amphioxus, 2
Anchovy, the, 359
sauce, its history and colour, 359
Anemone, the Weymouth, 88
Anemones, sea-, 81, 84, 85, 86
fertilization of, 186
Anthea cereus, a sea-anemone, 86
Ape, the lines on the palm of the, 373
to man, from, 236-291
Apes, mental qualities of, 241, 242
Aquariums, marine, made fashionable by Mr. Gosse, 83
"Arabian Nights," stories as to men turned into fish, 353
Araucaria, the monkey-puzzle, 329
Arbor vitæ, a kind of cypress, 330
Argentière (Switzerland), 164
Aril of the yew tree, 310
Arthropods or jointed-leg owners, 102, 103
Ashtaroth, 352
Astrology, 372
Atargatis, 352
Atlas cedar, 320
Augurs, the Roman corporation of, 371
Aurelia, the common jelly-fish, 95
Australian natives, 29, 30
Automata, animals as, 187
Balancers or dwindled wings of the two-winged flies, 218
Balanus, the sea-acorn or acorn-barnacle, 110
Ballet, Russian Imperial, 169, 177
Barnacle, growth and transformation of, 111-113
the legend of the, and the goose, 118-141
the ship's, figure of, 109
Barnacle-goose, the, 118
Barnacles, 100, 108-141
nauplius young of, discovered by the Army surgeon,
Vaughan Thompson, 107
their "complemental males" discovered by Darwin, 115
Barrett, Sir W. F., on water-finders, 389, 390
Beaches, constituents of, 53, 55-63
Bee, the queen, retains the sperm of one drone for four or
five years, 405
Beit, M. Otto, 408
Bernacæ and bernak, Celtic word for shell-fish, 121
Berri-berri, a disease due to bad diet, 297
Birds believed to be produced by trees, 118
their courtship, 298-300
Birth-marks, belief in, similar to that in magical power of
water-finders, 390
experiment by the patriarch Jacob, 391, 399
Mr. Heape on, 398
Bivalve and univalve shells, 143
Bleeding of the nose, Latin hymn to arrest, 343
Blood, amount of, in man's body, 348
coloured blue in scorpions, crustaceans, and molluscs, 346
colourless corpuscles of, 349
colourless, of lower animals, 346
duties of the, 349, 350
emotion and excitement caused by sight of, 345
fascination of, distinguished from cruelty, 344
of the grub of the midge and of the coiled pond-snail, coloured red
by hæmoglobin, 346
red corpuscles of, 347
superstitions about, 342, 343
the, and its circulation, 343 _et seq._
the only case of an insect with red, 223, 346
used as an adhesive by Australians, 343
Blood-stream, its pace in man, 348
Blood-vessels, swollen, of molluscs, crustacea, and insects, 340
Bournemouth, various pine trees at, 324
Bower-bird, its play-run, 196
Brain of apes and man, 253 _et seq._
increase of its size means increase of educability, 268
significance of its greater size in man than apes, 257-261
small brains of extinct animals, 259
Brent-geese and tree-geese, 122
Bristle-worms, 79
Browne, Sir Thomas, and the spontaneous generation of mice, 125
Bruno, St., his lily, 165
Bummaloh, or Bombay duck, 359
Bunodes crassicornis, a sea-anemone, 85, 86
Bustard, the courting of the, 199
Buttercup, the white, 165
Cable, author of "Old Creole Days," 55
Canard and cock-and-bull stories, 119
Canine tooth of the Piltdown jaw, discovery of the, 287
Capercailzie, the, 44
Carnelians on the Felixstowe beach, 58
Cedars, 319
Cement stones, 58
Charles II and the globe of fish, 406
Chartreuse, the Grande, 163
Chesil beach, the, 61
Chin, the bony, of man, peculiar to him, 250
Christmas trees, 302
Chyle, the, 333
Circulation, the, of the blood, 348
Cirripedes, the order comprising barnacles, 114
Click-beetles, the adults of wire-worms, 225
Cockle, the common, 146
jumping powers of the, 150
Cœlom, the lymph-holding body cavity, 338
Colours of marine animals, 93
Cone of the Douglas fir (figure), 327
of the Larch (figure), 319
of the Monterey Pine, or Pinus insignis (figure), 325
of the Pinaster (figure), 323
of the Prickly pine, Pinus muricata (figure), 326
(male and female) of the Scots fir (figure), 305
(female) of the Silver fir (figure), 316
(female) of the Spruce or Christmas tree (figure), 318
(modified) of the Yew tree (figure), 310
Cones, globular, of cypress, 330
of juniper, 308, 331
of firs and pine trees, 303
Coniferæ, survey of, 313
tabular statement of their families, sections, and genera, 331
Conifers, the three commonest in England, 308
Conjugation in lower forms of life, 183
Conjurers still believed by some to conjure spirits and deal in the
black art, 365
Connective tissue, 335
Conscious and unconscious minds, 262-263
Consciousness, arrival of, 213
Contagious magic and fish-eating, 354
Copal gum, similar to amber, 73
Copalite found at Highgate, 76
Coprolite on the Suffolk shore, 59
Coral, white, 3, 9
Corals related to sea-anemones, 89
Corethra, the plume fly, its transparent larva, 27, 224
Corpus Christi, festival of, and dancing, 174
Corpuscles, colourless, of the blood, 349
red, of the blood, 347
Correvon, M., his garden, 163
Corundum pebbles give flame-flash when rubbed together, 67
Courting dress of water-fleas, 205
Courtship, 180-215
methods of, in man not inherited or instinctive, 211
Crabs, 98, 104, 105
Crane-fly, 216 _et seq._
Crawfish and crayfish, 99
Crustaceans, use of the word, 98
Cucujos, the, a phosphorescent beetle of South America, 234
Cupressus sempervirens, the common cypress, 330
Cyancæa, the stinging jelly-fish of our coast, 95
Cycads, an order allied to conifers, 309
Cypress tree, the, 330
Cyprus and coffers, 330
and Crete, ancient vases from, with pictures of transition from
barnacle to goose, 130, 133
Daddy-Long-Legs, 216 _et seq._
sometimes used as a name for the spider-like Opilio, 220
Dagon, the fish-god, 352
Dancing and science, 169 _et seq._
of birds and spiders, 171
various kinds of, 172, 173, 177, 178
Daphne, the Alpine, 166
Darwin and Lord Morton's mare, 400
Dawson, Mr. Charles, discovers the missing link, 284
Deodar, the Himalayan cedar, 320
Destruction of native animals in England, 15
Dewar, Sir James, on suspended animation of luminous bacteria, 158
Diet, certain substances necessary to be healthy, 294
Diptera or two-winged flies, divisions of, 222
Disharmonies in animal structure and habit, 227
in man's structure, 228
Display in courtship, 197 _et seq._
Divination, 371
by the forked twig, 384
by throwing a rod into the air, 383
varieties of methods in, 371
Divining-rod, the, 383
Dormouse, easily loses the skin of its tail, 219
Dousers and dousing, 385
dishonest variety of, 388
or water-finders tested by a committee, 392
some honest, 387
Dragon, the heraldic, and the parachute lizard, 382
Dredge, the naturalist's, 1
Duclaux, Professor, his advice as to diet, 299
Dunwich, a submerged city, 50
Earth-worm, cœlom of the, 338
Educability, 213, 268-269
Elaterids, a family of beetles, 225
phosphorescent species of, 234
Emperor moth, attractive smell of female, 209
Eoanthropus Dawsoni, the Piltdown Hominid, 283
Erosion of the coast, 51
Euphausia, a phosphorescent shrimp, picture of, 154
Evergreens, our native, list of, 312
Ewart, Prof. Cossar, his experiments on telegony, 400
Experience, learning by individual, 212
Expression by the face, greater in man than apes, 273
Eyes of deep-sea animals, 93
Fabre, his opinion of animal intelligence, 197, 198
Fainting, men, at sight of blood, 345
Fast days, 351, 352
Felixstowe beach, 56
erosion of the coast at, 50
large piece of amber found at, 70
Fertilization, 180
Fir, Scots, 305, 321
Silver, or Abies pectinata, 315
used to build the Trojan horse, 306
Fire-flies of Southern Europe, 233
Firestones, 65
Fish, a young, saves Manu from the Deluge, 353
and Christian ornament, 356, 357
and fast days, 351 _et seq._
as the symbol of Christ, 354
certain, poisonous to every one, 358
modelled in gold, life size, dug up near the Black Sea, 353
poisons, 357, 358
some, poisonous only to certain individuals, 358
worship of, and the fish-god, 352
Fish-worship of the ancient Greek Orpheists, 355
Flame, flash of, produced under water, 66
produced by rubbing two quartz pebbles together, 65
Flame-seeking insects, 229, 230
Flies, two-winged, or Diptera which are phosphorescent, 234
various kinds of, 222, 223
Fly as dirt carrier, 300
Food, constituents of, 292
Foot of man and his upright carriage, 243
Foot-jaws of crab and lobster, 104
Forbes, Edward, a sketch by, 159
Fowl, the common, 43
France gained courage and self-respect through Pasteur, 415
French cookery, sham, in Switzerland, 165
Fresh water jelly-fish, 91, 92
Fridays and fish-eating, by Jews as well as Christians, 352
Frog, blue variety of the edible, 163
Futurists, 23
Galliformes, an order of birds, 43
Geese, drawings of, by ancient Mykenæan artists, modified to resemble
barnacles, 133, 134
Gelinotte, 46
Geology and living toads in rocks, 379
Geomancy, 372
Gerard the herbalist on the transformation of ship's barnacles into
geese, 121
Giard, Professor; discovery of a phosphorescent disease in
sand-hoppers, by him, 156
Gingko tree of Japan, 309
Giraldus Cambrensis and the production of geese from timber, 120
Glass-like marine animals, 92
Glow-worms, 233
Goose-tree, the, as drawn by Gerard in 1597, 123
Gopher tree of the Bible, 330
Gosse, Mr. Philip Henry, 83
Greek dancing, 175, 176
name-gods or totems, 356
Grouse, black, red, and others, 45
the, and allied birds, 41
Gummi-horn, the, 160
Hæma, the red part of blood, 339, 347
Hæmoglobin, or blood-red, 347
in the blood of the larva of thebig black midge (Chironomus), 223
in Bonellia, 11
in the coiled pond-snail, 346
Hæmolymph, the proper name for vertebrate blood, 339, 346
Hallucination and self-hypnotism, 372
Hamingia, a green worm, 10-11
Hamlet and superstition, 361
Hampstead Heath, 16
Hands and feet, size and shape of, as indicating character, 375
Hardanger Fiord, 3
Haruscipation, 372
Heart-urchin, 80
Henslow, of Cambridge, 59
Hierapolis, where Atargatis was worshipped, 352
Hopkins, Mr. Gowland, his experiments on diet, 294
Hôtel du Planet, good food at, 164
House sparrow trained to be a songster, 207
Houssay, M. Frederic, his discovery of the origin of the goose
and barnacle story in paintings on Mykenæan vases, 131 _et seq._
Huxley and Cuvier on the distinctive quality of man, 272
and Owen, their controversy, 236
Hybridization, infection of plants by, 403
Hydra tuba breaks up into jelly-fish, 97
Idiosyncrasy as to poisonous quality of fish, 358
Infant, crying of the human, a speciality, 272
Infantile diarrhœa, 300
Inflammation, nature of, 349
Insects, many guided by the sense of smell, 209
Instinct and reason in courtship, 205
Instincts, 267
Intestine, the large, a disharmony, 228
Japan, the umbrella pine of, 330
Javanese story of a bird produced by a shell-fish, 138
Jaw, lower surface of the Piltdown, compared with that of man and
of chimpanzee, 282
from Moulin-Quignon, 289
Heidelberg, compared with Piltdown, 286
Piltdown, 283
Jelly-fish, 91, 94, 95, 96, 97
Jelly-fishes which sting, 95
Juniper, the, 308, 330
Junipers, 330
Kauri resin, similar to amber, 73
Kowalewsky, the Russian zoologist, 11
Labouchere, Mr. Henry, his view on food, 293
Lacteals, or milky lymphatic vessels, 333
Lampyris noctiluca, the common glow-worm, 233
Lancelet, the, 2
Langouste, 99
Larch tree, the common, 307, 319
Laughter in apes, 241
Leather-jackets, the grubs of the Crane-fly, 221
Lebanon, cedar of, 320
Lepas anatifera, the ship's barnacle, 109
Leprosy and fish-diet, 357
favoured by same conditions as scurvy, 296
Lervik (Norway), 3
Lights, nocturnal, attract insects and birds, 230, 232
Lily of St. Bruno, 166
Limpet and cockle compared, 146, 148
Lizard, the parachute, is the model upon which the heraldic dragon
is founded, 382
Lobsters, 99, 100
Loch Fyne herrings, their food, 155
Longevity of a sea-anemone, 86
Lophohelia, 9
Luciola italica, the fire-fly of South Europe, 233
Luges, or mountain sledges, 167
Lug-worm, 79
Luminous bacteria, 158
grub of Paraguay called the railway-beetle, 234
or luminescent insects, 232
Lyell, Mr., his Bill for the preservation of the
Great Grey Seal, 32, 34
Sir Charles, used the term "missing link," 276
Lymph, amount of, in man's body, 333, 348
and lymphatic system, 332 _et seq._
Lymphatic vessels of the human arm (figure), 334
Lymph-hearts, 337
Magi, the priests of Zoroaster, 368
Magic, history of, 369, 370
sympathetic, 369
Male, the seeker and wooer, 185, 190
Man, his conscious memory, 187
primitive, courtship of, 195
Mandrill, beautiful colours of the, 205
Man's modern method of courtship, 215
structure compared with that of the gorilla and
chimpanzee, 239, 240, 241
Manu, the Indian Noah, 353
Mare, Lord Morton's, 400
Mares not infected by sire, 399-400, 401
Mastodon, fragments of teeth of, found with the Piltdown jaw, 289
Mate-hunger, Mr. Pycraft on, 191, 192
Maternal impressions, 396 _et seq._
May-flies or Ephemerids, 230
some are phosphorescent or luminescent, like glow-worms, 231
Mechanisms of instinct, inherited, 268, 269
of the mind, distinguished, 211, 212
Medicines, quack, and credulity, 366
Memory essential to consciousness, 264
unconscious, 266
unconscious and conscious, distinguished, 212, 214
Mendés, Catulle, the French poet, and jelly-fish, 97
Metchnikoff on disharmonies, 367
Midge (Chironomus), its grub has red blood, 346
Midges, large kind of, 223
Milk and infantile scurvy, 296
Pasteurized, 300
supply of pure, 292 _et seq._
Millais, Sir Everett, on telegony, 400
Millionaire and sodium in the sun, 378
Milton the poet, his belief in spontaneous generation, 126
Mind, the, of apes and of man, 262 _et seq._
of man differs from that of animals, 213
Missing link, the, 275 _et seq._
Molluscs, alternate swelling of and shrinking of parts of
the body, 149
and their shells, 142 _et seq._
Monboddo, Lord, his views on man and apes, 276
Monkey-puzzle or Araucarian pine, 329
Moray, Sir Robert, on the transformation of the ship's barnacle
into a goose, 115, 127
Moth, the, and the candle, 226 _et seq._
vapourer, male pursues female living in water and is drowned, 210
Mules, 399
Müller, Iwan, and the microscope, 28
Müller, Professor Max, his suggestion as to the origin of the belief
that barnacles give rise to geese, 139-141
Murray, Sir John, at Millport, 155
Muscles of apes and men, 247
Music a late acquisition of man, 208
Mussel, the edible, 145
Name-gods or totems of ancient Greeks, 356
Naples, 2, 52, 203
Naturalist on the seashore, 25
Nature reserves, 13
Nature-worship, the ancient, 352
Nauplius, the young form or larva of crustaceans, 105, 106, 107
Neander or Moustierian man, 280
Necromancy, or communication with the dead, 371
Needles of firs and pine trees, 303, 315
of pine-trees in tufts of one to five, 321
Nero, the Roman Emperor, and amber, 71
"Nigromantia" and the black at, 371
Nobel prizes, 412
Normand, Rev. Canon, 3
Norway, 1
Noverre, "the Shakespeare of the dance," 176
"Nullius in verba," the motto of the Royal Society, 128, 362, 407
Nutrition, not so simple a matter as supposed, 293
Occultism, modern, 363
Octopus, courtship of the, 203
Odours as attractions and guides in courtship, 209
Opal, 57
Orchestia, a sand-hopper, 153
Orpheus, the fish-god, substituted for Dionysus, the wine-god, 355
the warden of the fishes, a fish-god, 355
Ovules and sperms, 181
Oxygen carried by the red corpuscles of blood, 347
Oysters growing on trees, 145
Palmistry or chiromancy, 372, 373
Paradisia liliastrum, 166
Pasteur, the Institut, a great seat of discovery, 416
what he cost to France, 415
Pavlova, Madame Anna, 169, 178
Pebbles of the seashore, 55-63
Penguins, method of courtship of, 196
Pentargon Cove and a young Grey Seal, 35, 40
Perfumes produced by male butterflies, 210
use of, by man, 209
Phagocytes, 336, 349
Phonograph and chants of Australian natives, 31
Phosphorescence of the sea, 153
Phosphorescent insects, 232
sand-hoppers, 156
shrimps, 154, 155
Photo-taxis or light guidance, 235
Picea, the genus of the Spruce or Christmas tree, 317
Pierre-à-voir, 167
Piltdown jaw, age of the, 289
jaw and Heidelberg jaw compared, 286
jaw, as reconstructed by Dr. Smith Woodward, 288
skull and jaw, 289
Pine, origin of the word, 304
Aleppo, 322
Arolla (Pinus cembra), 328
Bhotan (Pinus excelsa), 329
Californian prickly, 320
cluster, or Pinaster, 322
Corsican or Austrian, 322
Monterey, or Pinus insignis, at Bournemouth, 324
Montezuma of Mexico, 329
Pyrenæan or Calabrian, 322
stone, or parasol pine, 323
trees and other conifers, 302 _et seq._
umbrella, of Japan, 330
Weymouth (Pinus strobus), 328
Pipe-fish, 75
Pollen of pine trees carried by wind, 304
Ponds as nature-reserves, 27
Prawns, 99
Primates, apes and bats, 238
Proteids, special, necessary in food, 297
Pseudotsuga, the Douglas fir, 327
Ptarmigan, 45
Ptomaines of putrid fish, 357
Puteoli, near Naples, 52
Quartz, 57
crystals, rubbed together produce flame, 67
Raised beaches, 52
Rats, experiments on feeding young, 294
Razor-fish, 80
Reasoning, the origin of false as well as of true beliefs, 367
Record, the Great, the peculiar possession of humanity, 271
Redi, Italian naturalist, on the generation of maggots by eggs laid
by flies, 126
Regeneration of legs and tails, 218, 219
Religion and magic, one in origin, 369.
Reproduction, mechanism of, 181
Research, scientific, a delicate plant, 411
how to help it by money, 413
various attempts at promoting, 411
Reserves for native fauna in various countries, 19
Rhabdopleura, 4, 5, 6, 7
Rice, polished, and berri-berri, 297
Rings of the body of crab, lobster, and prawn, 104
Rock-pools, 25, 81
Roman road, submerged, near Naples, 52
Royal Society, its influence on superstition, 361
its motto, 128, 362, 407
the method of its founders, 362
Ruff, the display in courtship of the, 198
St. Swithin's Day, belief about, exploded, 406
Sagartia troglodytes, a beautiful sea-anemone, 85, 88
Samland, where amber is mined, 70
Sand, dry, shrinks when wetted, 64
of the seashore, 65
size and shape of its grains, 62
Sand-eels, 79
Sand-hoppers, 152
disease of, 156, 157
Sardines, 360
Savin, a kind of juniper, 308
Scavengers, phagocytes as, 349
Schliemann's great experiment, 406
Schynige Platte, view from the, 160
Sciadopitys, the Japanese umbrella pine, 330
Science and the unknown, 361 _et seq._
Scientific discovery aided by money, 408 _et seq._
Scorpions, cannibalism of, 202
Scots fir, 305, 312
Scurvy, infantile, described by Sir Thomas Barlow, 296
nature of that disease, 295
Sea-anemones, 81, 84, 85, 86
Seal, the Great Grey, 32 _et seq._
the northern fur-seal, courtship of, 192, 193
Sea shells, 142
Seashore as nature-reserve, 24
constituents of, 48, 55
Sea-worms, 78, 79
Seeds, winged, of fir trees, 317
Sequoia, the Big-tree and the Red-wood, 329
Shakespear and barnacles, 120
Shells of molluscs, 142
Singing competitions of male birds, 207
Skeleton of apes and man, 245 _et seq._
Skull and jaw found at Piltdown, 277, 290
Smell, the sense of, in man and animals, 208, 209
Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institute, 409
Snail, pond-, with red blood, 346
Soap-wort, 167
Soho, old house in, 14
Song, the beginnings of, in man, 208
Sounds as attractions in courtship, 206
Space, extreme cold of, not fatal to life, 159
Spencer, Professor Baldwin, shows bioscope pictures of
Australian natives, 30
Sperms and ovules, 181
Spider's courtship and dance, 201
Sprats fraudulently sold as Anchovies and as Sardines, 360
Spruce introduced to Britain by man, 307
or Norway pine, 306, 317
Stickleback's nest and courtship, 200, 201
Stordö (Lervik), 3
Stricker of Vienna, the microscopist, 336
Succinite, correct name for amber, 75
Survival value of colour in flowers, 168
Switzerland, 160 _et seq._
Synapta, and anchors in its skin, 80
Tail of man, a disharmony, 228
Talitrus, a sand-hopper, 153
Taxodinæ, a group of fir trees, 329
Teeth of apes and of man, 248, 249
of extinct animals on the seashore, 59
wisdom, as disharmonies, 228
Telegony described, 399
Tetraonidæ, the grouse family, 44
Thoracic duct, the, 334
Thumb of apes and of man compared, 243
Thuya, the Arbor vitæ, 330
Tipula oleracea, the Crane-fly or Daddy-Long-Legs, 216 _et seq._
Toads found living in stone, 376 _et seq._
Topiary and yew trees, 312
Troy, discovery of ancient, 406
Tsetse fly, 22
Tyndal, the late Professor, 67
Vitamine from outer coat of rice-grain, 298
Volvox animalcule, 183, 184
Water-finder, impostor exposed, 392, 393
Water-finders, 387, 390
Water-finding, theories of, 388, 389
Weald of Sussex, 289
Wellingtonia, the American Big-tree, 329
Whittington and his cat, origin of the legend, 139
Wickham Fen, 18
Willey, Dr., on the lancelet, 3
Winter-green, 167
Wire-worms, true and false, 221
Woman in civilized races, not man, seeks to captivate by display, 211
Yew, the Irish, 311, 312
trees, 310, 311, 312
_Printed by_ MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, _Edinburgh_
Transcribers notes:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling is retained.
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Bold is shown thus: =strong=.
Small capitals have been capitalised.
In the Index for Piltdown, skull and jaw, 289 was added as it was
missing in the original.
In the Index the entry for Max Müller, Professor, has been altered to
Müller, Professor Max, and placed accordingly.
End of Project Gutenberg's Diversions of a Naturalist, by Edwin Ray Lankester