Anglo-Saxon race is at present interesting economists of other stocks,
especially of the supposed Latin races. The fact of superiority
seems to be conceded. The problem is to account for it. A French
writer, M. Dumoulins, attributes it to the superiority of Anglo-Saxon
educational institutions. Signor G. Sergi, the distinguished Italian
anthropologist, thinks it is a result of the mixture of ethnic elements
of which the English people are made up, and he goes over the history
of the colonizations which have overtaken Britain, to show how upon
the first neolithic settlers of the Mediterranean stocks came a small
emigration of the Asiatic Aryan or Indo-European peoples. Cæsar's
conquest brought in a Roman infusion with some African elements, which
did not last long, but left their mark. Next the Anglo-Saxon tribes of
northern Germany made the principal contribution to the formation of
the English people. A portion of Scandinavian blood was added to the
composition, and on top of all came the Normans. These elements, none
of which were extremely discordant with the others, became thoroughly
mixed in the course of time, and matured into the English people as it
is. The English resemble the Romans in their methods of colonization,
political tact, practical sense, persistence, religious tolerance,
the magnitude of their works and the boldness of their undertakings,
and in their egotism working together with the principle of social
solidarity. Both readily established themselves in new colonies,
carrying there the civilization of the mother country and their systems
of administration. The great roads and wonderful bridges constructed by
the Romans are paralleled by the great Anglo-Saxon railway systems. As
the Latin language became almost universal, so the English language is
diffusing itself everywhere. But Signor Sergi fails to show why, if the
English have taken so much from the Romans, the Italians, their direct
descendants, have lost so much of what they once had. He reserves that
question, after raising it, for future consideration.
=Carbonic Acid and Climate.=--The great importance of the carbonic
acid in the atmosphere as a factor in determining the climate of the
earth has been confirmed by the researches of a considerable number
of investigators. Its work appears to be that of an absorbent of the
sun's radiant heat, retaining it and preventing its passing by us and
leaving us in the cold temperature of space. Tyndall computes that it
has in this capacity a power eighty times that of oxygen or nitrogen,
while it is excelled by water vapor with ninety-two times that of those
gases. Lecher and Pretner, on the other hand, believe that carbonic
acid is the only agent concerned in the service. Mr. Cyrus F. Talman,
Jr., in view of the fact that carbonic acid is an important factor
among geological agencies, has published, in the Journal of Geology,
a study of the conditions of the content of that gas in the ocean, a
study that leads to the consideration of the chemistry of the ocean.
It seems to be clear that with falling temperature the ocean will
dissolve carbonic acid from the air. Dr. T. C. Chamberlin has shown
that the amount of carbonic acid in the atmosphere at any one time, and
therefore the climate of the earth at that time, depends upon the value
of the ratio of the supply of the gas to its depletion. Besides the
continuous supply that the atmosphere receives from the interior of the
earth and from planetary space and the continuous depletion due to the
formation of carbonates in place of the igneous alkali earth silicates,
there are variations in the ratio of supply to depletion dependent
upon the attitude of the land and the water. A large exposure of land
surface is correlated with a rapid solution of calcium and magnesium
carbonates, which, becoming bicarbonates, represent a loss of carbonic
acid to the atmosphere. On the other hand, the formation of the normal
carbonate by lime-secreting animals causes a direct liberation of the
second equivalent of the bicarbonate. Therefore extensive oceans and
abundant marine life are correlated with warm climate. After a somewhat
more minute discussion of the action, Mr. Talman concludes that the
ocean very greatly intensifies the secular variation of the earth's
temperature, although acting as a moderating agent in the minor cycles.
=Pearl Mussels.=--In his report to the United States Fish Commission
on the Pearly Fresh-Water Mussels of the United States, Mr. Charles
T. Simpson speaks of the great variety of conditions under which they
live. They show great capacity for adaptation. Most of them are found
in shallow water, but certain forms live at considerable depths. Some
bury themselves among the fibrous roots of trees, some in the muddy,
sandy banks just below the surface of the water, and some, as in Lake
Tiberias (Palestine) and Lake Tanganyika (Africa), under six hundred
or more feet of water. Ordinarily they die in a very short time if
taken out of the water--in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, as a
rule--and they generally die in a few hours when exposed to the sun.
But many species, thus tender in the open air, will lie buried in dried
mud for a long time. In June, 1850, a living pond mussel was sent to
London, from Australia, which had been out of water for more than a
year. Along a small stream near Braidentown, Fla., which runs only
during about three months in summer and is dry the rest of the year,
thousands of a large colony of _Unio obesus_ may be found just buried
in the sandy banks or among the flags and rushes of the bottom, where
there is very little moisture, all in healthy condition. Mr. Simpson
has laid these mussels in the sun for months without killing them. The
specimens which live in perennial water seem to die soon if removed
from it, while those which inhabit streams or ponds that often dry up
will live a long time out of water. Some species in rocky streams live
in the crevices of the rocks. In the Big Vermilion River, in La Salle
County, Illinois, a swift, rocky stream, the author has found living
mussels that had been so washed about that nearly all the epidermis was
destroyed. The shells in such streams are usually heavier than those in
more quiet water.
MINOR PARAGRAPHS.
Prof. Frederick Starr, of the University of Chicago, has made two
excursions to Mexico for the purpose of establishing the physical types
of the aborigines by means of measurements, photographs, and casts. He
studied twelve tribes, half of which were almost unknown to science,
and made measurements of more than eleven hundred and fifty men and
three hundred women. On his last trip he rode one thousand miles among
the mountains on horseback. In a recent paper in the Open Court he
takes notice of frequent and curious survivals of pagan belief to be
remarked among these peoples, although they are all supposed to be
devout Christians. In one instance, which is specially described, an
idol bearing some resemblance to those found among the ruins of the
ancient cities occupied a station in the church by the side of the
crucifix, sharing the honors with the statue of the Virgin on the other
side. Grief and consternation prevailed among the Indians when the idol
was taken away by the ecclesiastical authorities.
* * * * *
The question of the increase of insanity in England during the last few
years is regarded as assuming a serious aspect, and the report of the
Commissioners of Lunacy for 1898, showing the largest annual increase
yet recorded, the Lancet says, reveals the gravity of the situation.
Other collateral facts given in the report "add to the seriousness of
the outlook." The increase in the number of inmates in institutions for
lunatics is attended with a falling off in the recovery rate, which
is lower for 1898 than that of the previous year, and even than the
average of the last ten years. A steady diminution in the recovery rate
has appeared also during each period of five years since 1873. The
attempt to account for the increase of lunatics in public and private
asylums by supposing that it is made up by removals thither from
workhouses or from the care of relatives fails, for it is shown that
this class of insane is increasing too, though slowly. The subject is
regarded as of so much importance that it was considered and discussed
in the Psychological Section of the British Association at its Bristol
meeting in 1899.
* * * * *
A process by which calcium carbide can be continuously produced
more cheaply than by the process at present in use is reported, in
Industries and Iron, to have been discovered by Professor Freeman, of
Chicago. In the new process a huge arc lamp inclosed in brickwork in
the interior of a furnace is employed. The upper electrode of the lamp
is hollow, and through it is fed a powder composed of common lime and
coke. This powder, being carried through the upper carbon directly into
the electric flame, is melted by the intense heat, and molten calcium
carbide runs away from the furnace. It is estimated that the carbide is
produced at a cost of half a cent per pound.
NOTES.
A new method of securing more perfect combustion, described by Mr.
Paul J. Schlicht before the Franklin Institute, is based on the fact,
described by the inventor, that if a current of air is properly
introduced into a chimney flue through which hot products of combustion
are escaping, it will flow in a direction contrary to theirs, and,
becoming heated in contact with them, will reach the center of the
fire in a condition highly favorable to the most complete union of
oxygen with the combustible elements of the fuel. Suggestions are
made in Mr. Schlicht's paper for the construction and regulation of
furnaces, so as to secure the condition described.
* * * * *
Mr. Edward Orton, Jr., has been appointed State Geologist of Ohio, to
succeed his father, the late Dr. Edward Orton. He has been connected,
as an assistant, with the survey, in which he studied the distribution
of the coal measures, and has also prepared reports on the clay and
clay industries of the State.
* * * * *
"From a moral if not from a scientific and industrial point of view,
incontestably superior to that of the European peoples," is the
characterization a book reviewer in the _Revue Scientifique_ gives to
Chinese civilization.
* * * * *
Sir William Turner is the president-elect for the Bradford meeting
of the British Association, 1900. He is head of the great medical
school at Edinburgh, and President of the General Medical Council, and
was pronounced by Lord Lister, in nominating him, the foremost human
anatomist in the British Islands, and also a great anthropologist.
* * * * *
A gold medal is offered by the Society of Agricultural Industry and
Commerce of Milan to the inventor of the best apparatus or the person
who will make known the best method for protecting working electricians
against the accidents of their profession. The competition is open to
all nations.
* * * * *
The statue of Lavoisier, called by the French "the founder of
chemistry," is to be erected, during the Universal Exposition in
Paris, on the square of the Madeleine, at the intersection of the Rue
Tronchet. The work is in charge of the sculptor Barrias. The sum of
ninety-eight thousand francs, or nineteen thousand six hundred dollars,
has been subscribed to pay for it.
* * * * *
The death list of the last few weeks of men known in science includes
a considerable proportion of important names. Among the number are
John B. Stallo, formerly of Cincinnati, author of General Principles
of the Philosophy of Nature, The Concepts and Theories of Modern
Science, and numerous contributions to scientific publications,
recently United States minister to Italy, in Florence, December
30th, in his seventy-fifth year; Sir James Paget, for many years the
leading surgeon in England, and author of books relating to surgery,
in London, December 30th, in his eighty-sixth year; Dr. Thomas C.
Egleston, Emeritus Professor of Mineralogy and Metallurgy in Columbia
University, in New York, January 15th; Prof. Henry Allen Hazen, one of
the chief forecasters of the United States Weather Bureau, and author
of improvements in the methods employed there, in Washington, from the
results of a bicycle collision, January 22d, in his fifty-first year;
Dr. Wilhelm Zenker, a distinguished physicist, at Berlin, October
21st, aged seventy years; Augustus Doerflinger, an engineer who was
engaged in the work of the removal of Hell Gate in New York Harbor,
at Brooklyn, November 24th, in his fifty-eighth year; Johann Carl
Wilhelm Ferdinand Tiemann, Professor of Chemistry in the University
of Berlin and late editor of the Reports of the German Chemical
Society, at Meran, Tyrol, November 17th, in his fifty-second year;
he was distinguished for his researches upon the constitution of
odoriferous principles, including works on vanillin, the aroma of the
violet, terpenes, and camphor, and the synthesis of amido-acids; Dr.
Birch-Hirschfeld, Professor of Pathology in the University of Berlin,
aged fifty-seven years; Sir Richard Thorne Thorne, principal medical
officer to the Local Government Board, in London, December 18th, aged
fifty-eight years; author of many official reports relating to the
public health, of works on the progress of preventive medicine during
the Victorian era, and of lectures on diphtheria and the administrative
control of tuberculosis; Dr. John Frederick Hodges, Professor of
Agriculture and lecturer on medical jurisprudence in Queen's College,
Belfast, Ireland, and author of two elementary books on chemistry, The
Structure and Physiology of the Animals of the Farm, and of several
papers published in the Proceedings of Scientific Societies; E. C. C.
Stanford, a practical chemist, distinguished for the introduction of
several original methods of manufacture, and for the preparation of
several new substances, such as algin and thyroglandin; he was the
author of the monograph on the iodine industry in Thorpe's Dictionary
of Chemistry; and John Ruskin, who, though not a man of science in the
strict sense of the term, did his full share for the advancement of
knowledge and comfort among men, at Coniston Lake, England, January
20th, in his eighty-first year.
PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.
Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Summary of
Feeding-Stuffs Law in Force in New York after December 1, 1899. P.
1. Bulletin No. 159. A Pest of Woodland and Grove. (The Forest Tent
Caterpillar). By F. H. Hall and V. H. Lowe. Pp. 5; No. 160. Report of
Analyses of Commercial Fertilizers for the Fall of 1899. By L. S. Van
Slyke. Pp. 102; No. 161. Popular Edition. Gooseberry Mildew held in
Check. By F. H. Hall and C. P. Close. Pp. 4; Newspaper Summaries of
these Three Bulletins. P. 1.
Carter, Oscar C. S. Coastal Topography of the United States. Pp. 30.
Connecticut, State of. Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics for the Year ending September 30, 1899. Pp. 266.
Densmore, Emmet, M. D. Consumption and Kindred Diseases. (Open-air
Treatment.) Brooklyn, N. Y.: The Stillmann Publishing Company. Pp. 138.
Douglas, James, New York City. American Transcontinental Lines. Pp. 56.
Fry, the Right Hon. Sir Edward, and Agnes. The Mycetozoa and some
Questions which they Suggest. London: "Knowledge" Office. Pp. 82. 1
shilling.
Gay, Albert, and Yeaman, C. H. An Introduction to the Study of Central
Station Electricity Supply. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 167.
$3.
Johnston, Charles. The Memory of Past Births. New York: The
Metaphysical Publishing Company. Pp. 50. 25 cents.
King, F. H. Irrigation and Drainage. Principles and Practice of their
Cultural Phases. New York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 502. $1.50.
Kunz, George F. The Production of Precious Stones in 1898. United
States Geological Survey. Pp. 48, with plate.
Marine Biological Laboratory, at Woods Holl, Mass. Announcement for the
Thirteenth Season. July 5 to August 16, 1900. Pp. 12.
McKay, A. H., Halifax, Nova Scotia. Phenological Observations, Canada,
1898. Pp. 20.
McKim, W. Duncan. Heredity and Human Progress. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons. Pp. 283. $1.50.
Michigan. Thirty-seventh Annual Report of the Secretary of the State
Board of Agriculture, and Eleventh Annual Report of the Agricultural
College Experiment Station. July 1, 1897, to June 30, 1898. Pp. 740.
New York State Library Bulletin. (Legislation No. 11, January, 1900.)
Albany. Pp. 395. 25 cents.
Parker, T. Jaffrey, and Haswell, William A. A Manual of Zoölogy.
Revised and adapted for the use of American Schools and Colleges. New
York: The Macmillan Company. Pp. 163. $1.60.
Peet, Stephen Denison. The Cliff-Dwellers and the Pueblos. Chicago:
Office of the American Antiquarian. Pp. 398.
Smithsonian Institution. List of Publications available for
Distribution. December, 1899. Pp. 35.
Sound Currency. October, 1899. Deposit Currency; the Effective Currency
of Commercial Communities. Pp. 12. November, 1899. The Farmer's
Interest in the Banking Question. Pp. 8. Both by L. Carroll Root.
Spencer, Frank Clarence. Education of the Pueblo Child. A Study in
Arrested Development. (Columbia University Contributions to Philosophy,
Psychology, and Education. Vol. VII, No. 1.) New York: The Macmillan
Company. Pp. 97. 75 cents.
United States Commissioner of Education. Report for the Year 1897-'98.
Vol. II. Containing Parts II and III. Pp. 2640.
United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. The Preservation of
Fishery Products for Food. By Charles H. Stevenson. Pp. 570.
United States Department of Labor. Bulletin No. 25. November, 1899.
Foreign Labor Laws. Pp. 80.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Lyell's Principles of Geology, eighth edition, p. 41.
[2] Clarence King, American Journal of Science, pp. 45-51, 1893;
Kelvin, Science, vol. ix, p. 665, 1899.
[3] Science, vol. ix, p. 665, 1899.
[4] Ibid., p. 889, and vols. x and xi, 1899.
[5] Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Prestwich, pp. 124 _et seq._
[6] Critical Periods, etc., American Journal of Science, vol. xiv, p.
99, 1877; Bulletin of the Geological Department of the University of
California, vol. i, No. 11, 1895.
[7] Journal of Geology, vol. vi, p. 597, 1898, and vol. vii, p. 545,
1899.
[8] Views similar to those of Professor Bautz have been advocated by
a French Jesuit, Père F. H. Schouppe, in a work entitled The Doctrine
of Purgatory elucidated by Facts and Private Revelations. The "facts"
consist of the visions of saints, and the "private revelations" prove
to be apparitions of souls in purgatory to hysterical women and other
persons "blasted with ecstasy." The book has been translated into
German by a Tyrolese priest, G. Pletl, and just published at Brixen,
"with the approbation of the Prince Bishop." An Austrian journal,
the Ostdeutsche Rundschau, printed extracts from the volume with
appropriate comments, and was confiscated by the Government in Vienna
for "offense to religion."
[9] The manner in which The Pelican makes piety profitable is most
extraordinary and should win the admiration and excite the envy of the
"yellow press." The editor informs the public that he entered into a
compact with St. Joseph, promising to distribute fifty books in which
this holy person is glorified, provided the journal receives two
thousand subscribers. In less than a year the number of subscribers
was twenty-five hundred. A promise to distribute one hundred books of
this kind, if St. Joseph would procure eight thousand subscribers,
raised the list of subscribers to twelve thousand; and this barter
went on until The Pelican could boast of ninety thousand subscribers.
The editor also announces that he has engaged two hundred and eighty
priests to say masses for the readers of his paper and to pray for and
bless their children, and concludes this astounding piece of puffery as
follows: "Experience teaches us that the benediction of a single priest
is effective. What, then, can not be obtained if two hundred and eighty
priests unite in blessing us!"
[10] _Cf._ Popular Science Monthly, November, 1895, p. 83.
[11] Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory, vol. vi.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES:
-Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
-A Table of Contents was not in the original work; one has been
produced and added by Transcriber.
-Subscripted numbers are rendered with an underscore (e.g. CO_[2] means
that "2" is subscripted).