Yellow.White.Red.Blue.Green.Total.Ranunculaceæ1919214660Magnoliaceæ14....16Anonaceæ......1..1Menispermaceæ..2....13Berberaceæ23....16Nympbæaceæ32..1..6Sarraceniaceæ1....1..2Papaveraceæ422....8Fumariaceæ2321..8Cruciferæ173725465Capparidaceæ..1......1Resedaceæ1........1Violaceæ46..8..18Cistaceæ4......48Droseraceæ..31....4Hyperaceæ18..2....20Elatinaceæ........11Caryophyllaceæ..3215..653Portulaceæ1..31..5Malvaceæ54103..22Tiliaceæ..2......2Camilliaceæ..2......2Linaceæ3....1..4Geraniaceæ3226..13Rutaceæ..2....13Anarcardiaceæ1......56Vitaceæ........77Rhamnaceæ..3....47Celastraceæ......213Sapindaceæ222..511Polygalaceæ2345..14Leguminosæ19286612116Rosaceæ1944132280Calycanthaceæ......3..3Saxifragaceæ220..11336Crassulaceæ231219Hammelaceæ11....13Halorageæ........99Onagraceæ15245430Melastomaceæ......3..3Lythraceæ..1..8..9Loasaceæ1........1Cactaceæ31......2Cucurbitaceæ..2....13Umbelliferæ833..2245Araliaceæ..3....36Cornaceæ..11....213Total1642837113687741
Yellow appears to have been the first color developed, and flowers with this coloration are usually simple and regular in structure, as the buttercups and five-fingers. But why, it will be asked, should yellow have been the primitive color? The spores and spore-cases of the club mosses, and the pollen of all cone-bearing trees, and, in fact, of most plants, are yellow, and the yellow coloration of the first petals is doubtless correlated with this fact. Flowers of this tint are peculiarly attractive to yellow-banded flies, and when dull are avoided by beetles. Yellow flowers vary greatly in size, but pale yellow flowers are usually small, and bright or orange-yellow are large.Ranunculus abortivusandR. sceleratus, which grow in wet places, are small and pale, whileR. bulbosusandR. acris, the familiar buttercups of our meadows, are an inch broad. An apparent exception to the above rule is offered by the globe-flower (Trollius laxus), found in dense swamps, which has solitary, very large, pale greenish-yellow flowers. As the cultivated European and Asiatic species have bright yellow flowers, the coloring of the sepals ofT. laxus, for the petals are wanting, has probably retrograded from growing in dense shade.
Yellow flowers in their natural state exhibit but little variation of color. They change most readily to white, and less often to red or blue. Under cultivation sudden variations from yellow to white have been observed. A double yellow hollyhock, according to Darwin,suddenly turned one year into a single white kind, and a chrysanthemum has been seen to bear both yellow and white flowers. It will be observed in the accompanying table that in all families in which yellow flowers are common, white are also common, except in theHyperaceæ, which contain no white-flowered species. Some species of mustard regularly fade to white, while many white flowers show that they are descended from ancestral yellow forms by retaining vestiges of this color on the base of the petals, as in the water-crowfoot. The pale yellow flowers ofŒnothera laciniata, of the cultivatedRibes aureum, and ofDiervilla trifidain fading change to rose or red, exhibiting a tendency to develop red coloration.Aquilegia canadensisproduces scarlet flowers, which are yellow inside and rarely all over. There are two other species in the Northern flora which exhibit similar coloring,Lonicera sempervirensandSpigelia marylandica, and the former is sometimes yellow throughout.Myosotisis at first pale yellow, and changes to sky-blue. But the best illustration of the transition from yellow to blue is exhibited by the violet family; the smallest and simplest species is yellow, the most highly specialized is blue, and all the intermediate stages are presented byViola tricolor.
Honey-guides are exceedingly rare among yellow flowers.Cassia chamæcrista, which has nearly regular, showy yellow flowers, has two or three petals with a purple spot at base, while four of the anthers are yellow and six purple. It is interesting to compare with this flower the change of color presented byArnebia. When the flower opens, each lobe of the yellow corolla is marked by a dark purple spot, which soon begins to fade, and by the next day has entirely disappeared.Saxifraga aizoideshas golden flowers spotted with orange, and attracts a large number of insect visitors, and the yellow violets have their petals marked with dark-brown lines leading to the honey glands. Sulphur-yellow flowers are visited chiefly by bumblebees, and their coloration seems to have been developed by their selective influence from red or purple-flowered ancestors. Müller observed that the sulphur-yellow flowers ofSempervivum Wulfenii, which are unlike the primitive yellow of theCrassulaceæ, are purple at base. This purple coloring he believed to be a remnant inherited from an earlier purple-flowered form.Hibiscus trionum, which is sulphur-yellow with a blackish eye, has perhaps been derived from a red-flowered ancestor, for the three other species of the genus are rose or flesh colored.
White flowers, in the opinion of the writer, are due to retrogression, and are derived from yellow, red, or blue, and in some instances from the primitive green, as in the involucre ofCornus. As a whole they present no advance in specialization over yellow flowers, and are often smaller and less conspicuous. When the petals of blossoms containing yellow, red, or blue pigments are placed in concentrated alcohol they turn to white. To produce these pigments is evidently more or less a tax upon the energies of the plant, which, whenever possible, is avoided. They are not present in the embryonic buds, and may not develop until they are well advancedin size. InGentiana crinitathe yellowish-white bud is nearly an inch long before the purple coloring appears, and the corolla always remains white at base. A stimulus to the growth of the plant makes itself apparent in the increased brilliancy of the flowers, as when they are exposed to clear sunlight or are treated with nitrate of soda, and may also be observed in the flushing of tulips, by which they lose their variegated colors when treated with strong manure. On the other hand, a check in nutrition and growth will cause a diminution of the perianth in size, accompanied by retrogression in color. When double red poppies are transplanted the whole plant is dwarfed, while the flowers are much smaller and pure white. This view of the origin of white flowers explains why they are the commonest in Nature, accounts for their being most numerous in families in which yellow flowers are likewise numerous, and why they are most true to name under cultivation. Many white flowers also exhibit other evidences of degeneration in their structure. Numerous species ofCruciferæandCaryophyllaceæhave small white flowers, which regularly fertilize themselves; and inLepidium,Stellaria, andSaginathe petals are sometimes present and in other instances are wanting.
White flowers often develop red or blue coloration. It is interesting to note that the red and white varieties of the hyacinth were derived from the wild blue form earlier than the yellow. Darwin gives an instance of a white and red rose produced on the same root, also of white and pink flowers on a single plant ofAntirrhinum majus.Cratægus oxyacantha, a dark pink hawthorn, has been known to throw out a tuft of pure white blossoms. Every stage of the transition from white to red is placed before us by the rose family. The thorns are white, rarely tinged with rose; in the pear and apple the flowers are white, regularly shaded with red; and one of theSpiræasis rose, rarely white, while in the roses proper the six species are rose-colored, but the prairie rose changes to white. Under cultivation the wild geranium has been seen to produce upon the same plant both white and blue flowers. Good examples of the transition from white to blue and from blue to white may be met with in theRanunculaceæandLeguminosæ.Delphinium tricorneis bright blue, sometimes white,Viola canadensishas the petals white inside but the upper ones tinged with violet beneath,Astragalushas a part of the species white and a part purple, while it is common to find blue and white varieties ofHepaticagrowing on the same grassy bank. White flowers pass more readily into red, blue, or yellow than any one of these colors can be converted into any other, since it is easier to develop a new pigment than to transform one already existing. This is confirmed by theexperience of florists, who always seek to obtain a white variety from which to develop the desired hue.
Red flowers are much rarer than blue, and both are seldom common in the same family. For instance, in the pink family red and white blossoms prevail, and there are no blue shades. The pinks are crimson and scarlet, often with elegant markings and a strong aromatic odor. The honey is deeply concealed, and they are visited almost exclusively by butterflies and millers. Twenty-eight species of diurnalLepidopterahave been collected upon a single variety ofSaponaria. Of the eighty species ofRosaceæ, thirteen are red and two purple, but the forty-four white flowers are very generally tinged or tipped with red. The two purplish-flowered species,Geum rivaleandPotentilla palustris, belong to genera in which yellow predominates, and this primitive color is still evident in both their calyx and corolla. There are no blue or violet flowers. This family exhibits a marked tendency both in stem, leaf, bud, flower, and fruit to develop reddish coloration, a tendency which is probably due to the chemical constitution of the sap. There are no flowers in this family adapted toLepidoptera, but they are visited by a mixed company of flies, beetles, andHymenoptera. The smaller and less specializedRosaceæare yellow and white and are visited by a variety of short-lipped insects. With the increase of the flower in size and conspicuousness the number of insect visitors greatly increases, and the enlargement of the flower is attended by red coloration. Owing to the chemical constitution of the nutritive fluid, probably to its acidity (for when the petals of a rose are treated with ammonia they become blue), there has been no opportunity for the development of blue coloration by insects. With the enlargement of the perianth and the increased flow of sap, red tints have tended to appear by process of oxidation.
The correlation of red coloring with an increased flow of sap is well illustrated by the galls of the wild-rose tree, which are often "as rosy as the rosiest apple." An abnormal flow of sap is caused to the part stung by the insect, and red coloration is due to the action of light, for it is of no service to the plant. Again, when the flowers ofCratægus coccineaare stung by the gall-fly the different organs all become bright red, and the change in coloring is accompanied by an increase in size. In some instances red colors, according to Darwin, indicate greater vigor on the part of the plant, and I have also observed that the dwarfing of red flowers under cultivation may cause them to revert to white.
It was long, indeed, believed that the same species could not produce yellow, red, and blue flowers. But this doctrine, to use the words of Dr. Lindley, "must now be laid up in the limbo of pleasantdreams." This supposed law is contradicted by the hyacinth, pansy,Delphinium cardinale, and many other plants. Though red and blue coloring never occurs among the roses, a hyacinth has been seen to produce a perfectly pink and a perfectly blue blossom on the same truss, and theBorraginaceæafford examples of flowers turning from red to blue in even a short space of time.
Blue is the highest color of the floral world, and is preferred by bees. Blue flowers are, as a rule, highly specialized both in form and color, and often possess marvelous mechanisms which aid in disseminating the pollen. This coloring is very common in the mint and pulse families, and in this district there are in the former forty-nine and in the latter sixty-one species of blue flowers. Their structure is such that few insects besides the long-tongued bees can gain access to the honey, and in some instances a single species of flower is visited by a single kind of bee, as one of the larkspurs by one of the bumblebees. While this high specialization of the flower may insure intercrossing, it is yet open to many objections, such as scarcity of proper guests, mechanical imperfections, perforation of the flowers by bees, and development of the perianth at the expense of the essential organs.
It is noteworthy that when genera occur containing three or more species they are seldom all blue or purple; one species at least, and frequently more than one, is yellow, white, or red. InTrifolium,T. pratenseis rose-purple,T. repenswhite, andT. agrariumyellow. In the genusAstragalusa part of the species are violet or blue and a part white, and the same is true ofLespedezaandVicia; inLathyrusthree species are blue-purple, one yellow, and one yellowish white. It is probably more advantageous in these genera for a part of the species to be of one color and a part of another than for all to be blue. When species are closely allied bees tend to visit them indiscriminately, as has been observed to be true of the buttercups,Spiræas, and golden-rods. During an afternoon the writer carefully collected the insect visitors toSolidago bicolor, our only cream-colored golden-rod. Both the number of species and of individuals taken was much larger than upon the yellow-flowered and more abundant varieties of this genus growing near by. There could be no doubt that the whitish coloration was beneficial in enabling insects to distinguish it more readily. Many purplish flowers are regular, often showing indications of degeneration, are devoid of honey, and are self-fertilized or adapted toDiptera, or, as inHepatica, which is visited by bees for the pollen, open to a wide circle of visitors. In the sea purslane (Sesuvium maritimum), a prostrate maritime herb, there are no petals, but the five-parted calyx is purplish inside. The genusAmmanniaof theLythraceæhas thepetals small, purplish, and in one species they are wanting; the axillary flowers ofBracenia purpureaare small and dull purple; in the common papaw the lurid purple flowers are large and adapted toDiptera, as are probably the lurid purple flowers ofCalycanthus. Blue flowers may revert to red, white, or yellow. The fringedPolygalaof Britain is usually bright blue, but often reverts to pink and white; there is a pure white variety of the blue-eyed grass;Mertensia virginicais purple-blue, rarely white; the larkspur is bright blue, sometimes white, and a white variety of the purpleTrilliumfrequently occurs; there is, indeed, no improbability of a white-flowered form of every species being discovered.Viola calcaratais normally blue, but sometimes changes to the ancestral yellow.
The possession of a strong scent may, however, in many instances more than compensate for the absence of color. This is well illustrated inLepidium sativum. The flowers are small and inconspicuous and in rainy weather do not fully open, yet, as it is odoriferous, Müller found it more abundantly visited by insects than any other crucifer. It is their strong odor, rather than their color, that renders so many umbellifers so attractive to a great variety of insects. Nocturnal flowers, which are visited by moths, are usually white and sweet-scented, though the evening primrose is yellow andSaponaria officinalisis rose-colored. Kohler and Schübeler have shown that a larger proportion of white flowers are fragrant than of any other color. Of 1,193 white flowers examined by them, 187 were odoriferous; of 951 yellow, 75; of 923 red, 85; of 594 blue, 31. But neither color nor odor will long alone serve to insure the visits of insects. The common elderberry exhibits the disadvantages which may attend the want of honey when there is but a limited supply of pollen. There are great masses of odoriferous flowers which convert the shrub into a huge bouquet, but it blooms at midsummer, when it must contend with many nectar-yielding plants. As a result, it is almost wholly deserted by insects. Only four species of flies have been taken upon it, and repeatedly the blossoms were examined without discovering a single visitor, and yet upon the jewel-weed and the red-osier cornel, a few yards away, scores were at work.
Among the more recent applications of electricity is one for the desiccation of wood, by the Nadon Bretonneau method, by which wood is made as fit for use for certain exact processes in as many months as it has formerly taken years. It is also proposed by Mr. Shaw, an English mining engineer, to substitute water and steam for gunpowder in mine blasts, a cartridge of water being placed instead of the powder cartridge, and vaporized by passing the electrical current through it.
Among the more recent applications of electricity is one for the desiccation of wood, by the Nadon Bretonneau method, by which wood is made as fit for use for certain exact processes in as many months as it has formerly taken years. It is also proposed by Mr. Shaw, an English mining engineer, to substitute water and steam for gunpowder in mine blasts, a cartridge of water being placed instead of the powder cartridge, and vaporized by passing the electrical current through it.
Oscar Schmidt was characterized by Ludwig von Graff, his successor at Grätz, as a real naturalist who, keeping up with the advances of science and philosophy all his life, as a zoölogist spanned the whole domain of that science, giving equal interest to every part and branch of it. The animal as a whole, as a living being in the series of organisms, was the object of his concern, and all the parts of the animal and all the processes that go on within it were alike interesting and important to him; and the ultimate purpose of his study of that object was to gain from the facts disclosed a philosophic view of Nature.
Eduard Oscar Schmidtwas born at Torgau, Prussia, February 24, 1823, the son of a military chaplain who was descended from an old family of clergymen—"a man of fine Saxon culture, with no very great taste for theology, and open-minded to a ripe old age," and who died in 1875. His mother was of French and German (Hamburg) descent, and counted the great Aristotelian Petrus Ramus among her ancestors. The father was a gentle instructor to the son; and the latter, attending in the intervals of study to duties of the household and the farm and making good use of his opportunities for relaxation, enjoyed a young life that was invigorating to mind and body. He thus acquired tastes that led him frequently in his later life to leave the city and his study and go into the country to build and plant, whereby he endeared himself to the Badenese farmers. On rainy days and winter evenings, as he gleefully told of himself in 1858, the boy of eleven or twelve years of age entertained himself and had his fancy stimulated by reading Campe's old accounts of his travels. He thus became interested in geography, and acquired a thirst for travel that was never quenched.
Having finished his elementary schooling at Weissenfels, on the Saale, where his grandfather had served as superintendent, he went in 1836 to the celebrated Royal School at Pforta, of which his father was an alumnus, and whither he himself took his son thirty years later. He was much impressed by the teaching of Koberstein, the historian of literature, who unlocked for him the world of Goethe and of romance; and he went out from Pforta into life with a full conviction that the soundness of our culture depends upon its humanistic foundation. He went to Halle in the fall of 1842 to fulfill his military obligations and study mathematics and natural science, and became interested in other branches. At the Berlin Hochschule, whither he went next, he further broadenedthe scope of his culture, pursued philosophical studies, and finally settled upon the organic sciences. His interest was gradually diverted from mathematics, and he took up zoölogy with enthusiasm. Johann Müller—whose portrait, his son Erich Schmidt says, in the memorial address from which we draw most of the facts of his life, always adorned his room—permitted him, in 1845, after a summer term in comparative anatomy at Heligoland, to take part in a research upon sea animals, and impressed a stamp on the young investigator's view of Nature that lasted till the Darwinian revolution. Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg interested him in the investigation of the minute life of the infusoria, and, besides being his teacher, had a fatherly affection for him.
In 1846 Schmidt obtained a promotion to Doctor of Philosophy at Halle, the subject of his still unprinted dissertation being the sacredScarabæus. He passed the higher teachers' examination in Berlin, and thereby avoided a year of probation at a realgymnasium. In August, 1847, he habilitated himself at Jena. He presented, on the occasion, a paper entitled Morphological Fragments, in which, while the name of Oken was mentioned appreciatively in the introduction, the gap between his philosophy and the current zoölogy was insisted upon. He became Professor Extraordinary of Natural History in this university in 1849, and Director of the Grand Ducal Zoölogical Museum in 1854. While at Jena he published the Handbook of Comparative Anatomy (1849), the Hand Atlas of Comparative Anatomy (1852), and a historical study on the Development of Comparative Anatomy (1855). Some results of a journey to the North in the course of his studies of theTurbellariawere embodied in a lecture on the Faroe Islands (1848), and Pictures from the North, collected during a Journey to the North Cape (1854), a versatile work, in which his sharp powers of observation were well illustrated. A work of somewhat different character was a lecture on Goethe's Relation to the Organic Natural Sciences, which was delivered in the Berlin Singakademie and was printed in 1853.
Having occupied the professorship at Jena for seven years on a salary never exceeding one hundred thalers, and after declining an invitation to Prague, Schmidt in 1855 accepted the appointment of Professor of Zoölogy in the University of Cracow. The conditions at this institution were quite different from those which had surrounded him at Jena. He received more liberal allowances than had been granted him there; but political affairs were disturbed, and he withdrew in 1857 to become Professor of Zoölogy and Comparative Anatomy, and eventually rector, at Grätz. Here he spent the fifteen most enjoyable and most fruitful years of hislife, of which his son, Erich Schmidt, has given, in his memorial address, a most pleasant picture. "In the magnificent scenery," he says, "among which he often wandered with his growing children, with warm-hearted men around him, sure of the increasing affection and capacity of his students, he reached his culmination as a naturalist and as a man. He was active in every direction. The university was in a very promising period of its career. A medical faculty was required, and that magnified his function. He also represented his department in the Johanneum, and presided over the museum. He went every year to Dalmatia while he was composing his monograph on the sponges, and made experiments in their artificial cultivation, being given one year a small war steamer at his disposal. These journeys were doubly enjoyed when Franz Unger went with him to Lesina or to the Ionian Islands. He and the great botanist had a close community of interests, and it was an inestimable privilege, during the great scientific crisis, to stand shoulder to shoulder with an older man, who to power of following philosophical intricacies united the habit of the most exact research with finely trained effort and suggestive intuition. Together the two devoted themselves to the study of Darwinism, at first opposed to it, as is shown by one of Schmidt's printed essays, but soon becoming impressed with the conviction that all scientific progress was connected with that revolution, and finally Schmidt gave all his energy to the advancement of it. As Rector Magnificus—the first Protestant to wear the golden chain at an Austrian university—he declared himself, in his inaugural address, for Darwinism with a resoluteness peculiar to him, and neither the silly demonstrations of the theological students nor the wrath of Cardinal Rauscher could intimidate him from the vindication of free investigation.... The rectoral year 1865-'66 was also the year of the Austro-Prussian War, and he now proved that the rashly progressive man to whom the whole clash of opinions was a bath of steel also possessed a considerable measure of self-control. He bore himself correctly in every sense in his difficult position, and, without turning his back upon his native Prussia, he so completely devoted himself to the care of the wounded as to receive a note of thanks from the General Archduke Albrecht. Having been chosen a deputy to the Landtag, his voice was always heard in favor of the Liberal side. He served indefatigably in the communal council and the school board. The Protestant communes depended upon him as one of their most effective champions, even to the end of the partisan contest. Besides all this many-sided scientific and public-spirited activity, Schmidt had time to describe the lower animals for Brehm'sThierleben, and to write a number of populartreatises. A lively social disposition bound him to numerous colleagues, and on the whole he felt so much at home in Grätz, especially after he had a new institute and a share in the direction of a zoölogical station at Trieste in prospect, that he had no thought of a change. He declined invitations to Marburg and Dorpat. He was always favored by the Government, and kept the marks of its consideration faithfully in memory."
Ludwig von Graff describes three plainly marked periods in Schmidt's scientific career. The first, the beginning of which coincided with his entrance into his scientific professorship, was characterized by his labors on theTurbellaria, from which he was only occasionally diverted during his residence at Jena and Cracow. "The observations on infusoria, radiates, and tapeworms, the structure of the annelids and the development of the mollusks, the descriptions of new amphibia, and the important discovery of the crustacean nature of the peltogasters, were, we might say, only rests in the uninterrupted course of theTurbellariastudies; and that Schmidt was constantly returning to them was not merely because particular interest had been devoted to them in Germany at that time only by M. Schultze and R. Leuckart, for other animal groups had fared no better among the then small number of scientifically working zoölogists, but Schmidt had won his earliest scientific fame with his little book on the fresh-waterRhabdocœlas(1848), and had by means of it entered the circle of recognized investigators. He gave in this book the first connected presentation of the whole organization of a group of animals, the diversity and great abundance of which in fresh water were hardly suspected, and the anatomy of which consisted of few and imperfectly understood isolated data; described new systems of organs in them, and based an improved classification on their remarkably complicated and variously graded structure, with new families, genera, and species. The little book was therefore received with much interest. A journey to the Faroe Islands in 1848, and his first excursion to Lesina in 1852, followed in 1856 by a journey from Cracow to Nice and Naples, enabled him to increase the number of new species, and permitted an insight into the great diversity of forms, without, however, giving him time for accurate anatomical investigations, for the nature of the objects promised a considerable advance in this direction only at the cost of tenacious patience and untiring industry. His subsequent labors on theRhabdocœlasof the vicinity of Cracow, theDendrocœlasof the vicinity of Grätz, and his researches on theTurbellariaof Corfu and Cephalonia, which (in 1861) closed this period of his career as worthily as it had begun, proved that Schmidt possessed both these requirements. These labors, if he had accomplished no more,would have been sufficient to give him an honorable position in science for all time.
"The second period begins in Grätz. Some contributions to the knowledge of the prehistoric vertebrate fauna of Steiermarck resulted from Schmidt's keen observations of Nature during an excursion in the Alps. But the Adriatic, so near, enticed him into new paths, and offered an inexhaustible field for work in the sponges. Aside from his contributions to the theory of theBathybiusand to the systematics of theGephyrea, the sea sponges constituted the object of his studies during the whole period of his residence in Grätz, and were the occasion of yearly journeys to the Adriatic coasts. The results reached by Schmidt in this field placed him in the foremost rank of contemporary investigators, while his occupation with the sponges marked the completion of a revolution in his view of Nature by converting him to Darwinism. After his work the characteristic fluid form of the sponges became a classic subject in the study of the transmutation theory.
"At the time of the appearance of Schmidt's first work on the sponges of the Adriatic (in 1862), just enough of their anatomy and physiology had been made known through individual labors, especially those of Lieberkühn, to prove their animal nature; and then, also, the sponges first found a place in the fifth edition of Schmidt's Handbook of Comparative Anatomy. But any one who undertook either in the Adriatic or the Mediterranean to make his way through the immense wealth of the forms would have found himself without help of any kind. It was therefore Schmidt's purpose to lay the basis, through exact description and definition of the forms, for continued investigation through which the study might be further advanced. He carried out this purpose, recognizing in the skeleton parts what survived amid the changes, clearly defining the species and genera, nineteen of which were new, and brilliantly demonstrating his talent in systematization. While in the first supplement, in 1864, which brought up the histology of the sponges, he still acknowledged himself an adherent of the old school, he expressed the hope in the second supplement that science might some time come upon the track of the genealogical relations of species; and, in the memorable rector's address of November 15, 1865, he openly signalized his passage to the new theory, and proclaimed it, with all the youthful enthusiasm and carelessness as to consequences characteristic of his nature, as the gospel of the research of the future.
"The idea of utilizing the great reproductiveness of the sponges for artificial cultivation was suggested to Schmidt during his studies of the Dalmatian fauna, and his experiments in this directionmade his name well known in the Austrian coast land and far beyond. After the publication of an article on the subject in theWiener Zeitunghe was requested, by the Imperial-Royal Ministry of Trade and National Economy, to make a special presentation of his views respecting the possibility and methods of cultivating sponges artificially in Dalmatia. He first asked for means for experimenting, as furnishing the prime and most essential method of determining where and how a sponge culture could be instituted with the best prospect of success. The request was not granted, but Schmidt was requested to furnish data respecting the provisions and measures within reach which might be employed with advantage till further information could be obtained concerning the adaptability of sponges to propagation from such local experiments as might be carried on through the industrial and commercial chambers of Dalmatia. The Notes on Sponges in the Adriatic Sea and an article of similar import in theTriester Zeitungof March 12, 1862, were the answer to this request, and they were followed by Schmidt's having placed at his disposal, by the exchanges of Trieste, in the next season, money and the control of the war steamer Hentzis for use in scientific and practical investigations on the Dalmatian coast. With the assistance of his brother, Eugen, he carried his experiments to a successful issue at Sebenico, Zlarin Valle Socolizza on Lesina, Curzola, Lagosta, Meleda, and Ragusa, but especially in the more favored stations of Zlarin and Lesina, and demonstrated the possibility of artificial propagation. In order to test the practical value of the experiments, propagating stations were established on the island of Lesina and visited by Schmidt every spring. The results of the experiments were presented in a report to the Imperial-Royal Ministry of Commerce and National Economy, in which the possibility of artificial propagation was emphatically affirmed."
Unfortunately, the Dalmatines have not been quick enough to take advantage of the opportunity thus offered to them to establish a new industry on their not very busy coast. Bucchich continued Schmidt's experiments till 1872, but no capitalists have been found to establish the cultivation of sponges on an extensive and permanent scale.
Another enterprise, however—the Zoölogical Station at Trieste, to which Schmidt for a time devoted all his energy—has had a more fortunate realization. The plan of it was developed by Carl Vogt, but it would never have been erected if Schmidt's practical sense had not adapted the plan to the actual needs of the case and the financial conditions imposed by the state, and if he had not given the weight of his personality to the accomplishment of it.
The erection of a German Empire at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War was an occasion of proud and exultant joy to Schmidt; and when, in the spring of 1872, he was elected, at the instance of his friend Haeckel, a professor in the newly instituted university at Strasburg, he deemed it a patriotic duty to accept.
With his removal to Strasburg, what both Erich Schmidt and Professor von Graff call the third period of Schmidt's scientific career began. It was a period of undisturbed ease in his home life, and was devoted chiefly to the continuation of the studies of the sponges, with a few special researches, the results of which appeared in books, on the theory of descent, fossil animals, on Hartman's theories, and on social democracy. His systematic and anatomical labors on the sponges—the provisional conclusions of which, in 1870, constituted theGrundzüge einer Spongienfauna des Atlantischen Gebietes(Outlines of a Sponge Fauna of the Atlantic Region)—were carried on, Professor von Graff says, from the point of view of the development theory. Besides several smaller contributions to the building up of the theory of descent, the most important of all his works of this time is his book on the Theory of Descent and Darwinism (Appletons' International Scientific Series)—"one of the best presentations of all the questions pertaining to that subject, and distinguished from other similar works both by the philosophical spirit with which the whole discussion is carried on, and by the even consideration it gives to all the various fundamental points of the principle of descent. The prominent features of Schmidt's presentation appear most especially in the final chapter, the subject of which is the Application of the Theory of Descent to Man, which he had also previously discussed in a public address. Shortly after this he reduced to absurdity, in a very forcible attack on Hartman's Philosophy of the Unconscious, the idea of the Social Democrats that they could use Darwinism to the advantage of their Utopia, and treated the subject of the Mammalia in their Relation to Primeval Times (Appletons' International Scientific Series) most vigorously from the point of view of the development theory." He also found time for special researches on the Structure and Development of Loxosema, the Eyes of Arthropods, and, still keeping up his studies of the sponges, closed his more than twenty years' labors on this group with his Sponges of the Gulf of Mexico, and his last scientific work—Derivation of New Species through the Decay and Atrophy of Older Characteristics. The preface to the former work, Professor von Graff says, shows plainly how Schmidt, in contrast to so many fellow-laborers in the field of the theory of descent, was always circumspect in a high degree, and never suffered himself to be carriedso far in his zeal as to leave the ground of facts. Although a champion of monophyletic derivation, he did not overlook the facts that might be brought to bear in favor of a polyphiletic origin.
During the later years of his life Schmidt visited Heligoland, and enjoyed the sea air, which seemed to have become necessary to him, during two winters at Dohrn's Institute at Naples, in southern France, and at Grado, and attended the meetings of naturalists at Leipsic, Wiesbaden, Salzburg, Baden-Baden, Munich, Cassel, and Freiburg, where he was a welcome guest and a prominent speaker. In September, 1885, as president of the Zoölogical Section he entertained his fellow-specialists at his house. A slight stroke of apoplexy, which he suffered in the summer of 1882, passed away without seeming to leave any trace. He spent the Easter season of 1885 with his son's family in Vienna and with Graff in Grätz. He intended to speak on Easter of 1886 in Weimar and to visit Jena, "whither he expected to return in his sixty-fifth year so as to attach a good end to a good beginning." But on the morning of January 9, 1886, after he had spent the previous evening in pleasant social intercourse, there came another stroke. He never recovered consciousness, but died on January 16th.
Professor von Graff describes Schmidt's method of teaching as one encouraging the students to pursue their own ways of thinking. He did not expect formal theses from them, but, having indicated the theme, left them to work it out according to their own logical processes, and as often let them choose their own subjects. Having found a pupil's bent, he sought to turn him into a corresponding course, "and never tried to make a poor naturalist out of one who might become a good doctor or teacher." In his lectures he was earnest and enthusiastic, not as good a speaker as writer, and sometimes betraying his trouble to find the right word; "but he knew how to win the love of his pupils for his subject, and, while trying to make the comprehension of the matter not too difficult, to keep interest alive by occasional glances at the theoretical significance of the facts. It was very far from his purpose to make pastime for his hearers, and, when he was polemical, every one had to be made sensible of the purely technical bearing."
Professor Schmidt's literary work covered a field of extraordinary breadth. Besides numerous works and text-books in systematic and anatomical zoölogy and life histories, he published popular lectures and essays in many different periodicals, recensions, reviews of books, translations, and even political articles. It would be impossible to give a complete bibliography of his works, because he left no notes respecting them. A list of his publications in zoölogy, by Professor von Graff, includes ninety-nine titles.
Editor Popular Science Monthly:
Sir: I have read with great interest an article in the July number of your Monthly entitled Scientific Method and its Application to the Bible. So far as I am able to understand the writer's views, I must certainly decline to accept some of his conclusions. The vital teaching of his paper appears to me to be this: it is proper to apply scientific methods to the study of the Bible so far as to inquire into its structure, the date of its composition, its composite authorship and the sources from which it was compiled, and the names of its authors; but certain truths are distinctly taught in it of a supernatural character which must be accepted because they are a revelation of God's will, and not because they are found to be true by intellectual apprehension and logical reasoning. Indeed, to think of understanding them by intellectual processes is "unscientific beyond hope of pardon."
It is conceded that "the stifling of thought and of investigation into what might lead men away from the truth and the faith once delivered to the saints" was instrumental in causing the barrenness in scientific work for twelve hundred years of the middle ages, between Hipparchus and Copernicus, and that "the same causes are more or less at work at all times to hinder the growth of science and the extension of scientific method." He still, however, insists that there is limitation to human inquiry and ecclesiastical bounds beyond which thought must not go. There are still revelations of truths which the intellect can not perceive, and which can only be understood by "an exercise of faith." It is no longer the Mosaic line which scientists are forbidden to cross, but the "spiritual verities" must not be questioned. There are some revelations which, in the language of Huxley, "they are to hold for the certainest of truths, to be doubted only at the peril of their salvation."
Was it not Martin Luther who called Copernicus a "fool" for trying "to reverse the entire science of astronomy" in the face of revealed truths? "To accept the truth as revealed by God and to acquiesce in it is the part of a good mind," said Melanchthon in condemning Copernicus. "Who will venture to place the authority of Copernicus above that of the Holy Spirit?" said Calvin. Verily, his unpardonable sin was "investigating the truths which are distinctly taught in the Bible," which required an "exercise of faith" and were not to be "apprehended intellectually."
The question seems a reasonable one to ask, To what authority shall we look for knowledge and interpretation of these spiritual truths which are not accessible by scientific study? How shall we know that they are truths at all? I am aware that here the testimony of Christian conscientiousness is sometimes held to be the court of last resort, which I interpret to mean that if one intuitively reaches the conclusion that something is true it is true, the most positive evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Certainly, no other fact is better established in all human history than the truth of witchcraft, if we admit the potency of this authority. If we reject this, must we not then fall back upon ecclesiastical infallibility as the final interpreter of truth? And this the essayist, in his paper, declines to argue.
Now, can there be any such thing as scientific investigation within such prescribed limitations? Or scientific study of the Bible itself which excludes from its province the so-called spiritual revelations which it contains? One might naturally think that the primary purpose of all the critical study of the books, authors, and structure of the Bible was to learn just what these distinct truths it teaches are. But what bearing can this study have upon the question, being but an intellectual process with which the essential truths are disconnected, which only come by revelation?
Higher criticism can not hold permanently such an untenable position. It must either go backward to an infallible book, or an infallible interpretation of it by authority, or it must go forward to the consideration of the Bible as a collection of books of ancient literature, to be examined without restrictions. The truths which it contains are to be ascertained by "apprehending intellectually" and "reasoning logically," in the same manner as with other books written by religious leaders in ancient times. Any halting between thesetwo positions is only for temporary rest. No permanent foothold can ever be gained on such a foundation of quicksand. An impassable dead line in biblical study is indicative of the theological and not the scientific method.
Lewis Dayton Burdick.
McDonough, N. Y.
Editor Popular Science Monthly:
Sir: A correspondent, Mr. C. Wood Davis, of Peotone, Kansas, appears to think it his duty to prove that we can not produce wheat enough in this country to meet our own future demands, and apparently regards it as a personal matter when any one contests this position. He also thinks he has found a small error in long division in the last article which you printed from me on this question which I can not find, but which if found and corrected would have no influence on the general argument.
He also rebukes me in a most earnest manner for the alleged misuse of the chemical term "phosphate of potash," which crept into my article in connection with the right use of the term "phosphate of lime," when I referred to the mineral phosphates of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida. Technically he is apparently right. There is no permanent form or no natural mineral form of phosphate of potash which can be removed from place to place. Yet my article was revised by an experienced geologist, thoroughly familiar with the chemistry of the soil, before I sent it to you, and he failed to correct this technical error. My own knowledge of chemistry is very limited.
It might be inferred, as my irascible correspondent points out, from the manner in which I have called attention to the deposits of mineral phosphates in Kentucky and Tennessee, that I thought these deposits would yield phosphates of lime and phosphates of potash each in a separate movable form, which could not be a fact. Yet my critic will doubtless admit that the soils of many parts of this country are stocked with potash sufficient for a very long period.
Many years ago, when I began the study of the cotton plant and its growth, under the leadership of the late Prof. William B. Rogers, I made reference to the existence of the vast supplies of phosphate of lime and potash, which are necessary to the growth of the cotton plant, in the Southern soils. I derived my conception of their origin in the lowlands and plateaus in marine formations from Professor Rogers, and also from the works of Professor Shaler. One may also impute the large amount of potash that is found in the valleys and mountain lands to the disintegration of the gneiss and other rocks of the Appalachian chain, which have never been washed out by glacial action or by glacial streams. If any one has been misled by this slight misuse of chemical terms it may be well to state that phosphate of potash does not exist, and I am told that it can not exist, in a separate removable form.
We have not as yet discovered any large deposit or mine like that of Stassfurt, in Prussia, yielding potash in a commercial form in which it can be widely distributed. We import annually thousands of tons of potash from Stassfurt. This deposit was discovered, as I am informed, by accident, and it may be hoped that a similar accident may occur in this country. These mines were originally opened for the production of salt. In boring for salt the product of a stratum above or below the salt, I know not which, was brought up, which was thrown aside as worthless until an inquisitive visiting chemist examined it and thus discovered this great source of potash. We possess enormous beds of salt, of soda, and of alkalies, scattered throughout the area of this country, in connection with which it may be hoped that we may hereafter discover a deposit of mineral potash, or of the mineral from which potash may be derived cheaply and in large quantities.
These two exceptions which have been taken to my article have no real connection with the substance of the argument, which stands independently either of the undiscoverable error in long division or of the technical fault in the use of the term "phosphate of potash." Yours very truly,
Edward Atkinson.
Boston,June 7, 1899.
Voltaire's Candide is not a book that can be recommended for general reading; yet it contains perhaps as good a moral as could easily be found in a wide range of books aiming more distinctly at edification. The hero, after many vicissitudes and copious experience of the deceitfulness of riches and the miseries of an ill-regulated life, made the blessed discovery that peace and health and independence were to be obtained by the industrious cultivation of a small piece of ground. He had a friend called Martin who associated himself with him in his agricultural labors, but who had rather a fine talent for discussing abstract questions. Candide would listen to him for a while, but never allowed him to get very far without breaking in with the observation, "Mais surtout il faut cultiver notre jardin" ("But above everything else we must cultivate our garden"). Here was safety, here was balm for painful recollections, here was about the best that the world had it in its power to give; and Candide, chastised by misfortune, wanted to stick to that.
This is an age of copious and unending discussion of social and political problems. Discussion is well in its way; but perhaps the problems would not be so acute if there was less discussion and more cultivating of gardens. It may indeed be said, with no small degree of plausibility, that the greed to be rich, the unwillingness, so to speak, to cultivate a garden which only promises a moderate reward, is at the bottom of a large part of our troubles. Wisdom cries aloud and tells the world that happiness is not to be found in riches; but the cry is little heeded. The whole lesson of higher education is that happiness springs from within and not from without; but thousands take what they can of the higher education while declining the lesson. Science unlocks a world of beauty and wonder, and offers to the mind a constant succession of interesting subjects of contemplation; but thousands again ask nothing of science except to show them the way to wealth. Precisely similar in a multitude of cases is the demand made of art and literature. It is well-nigh a century since Wordsworth lamented the decay of "plain living and high thinking." Have the succeeding years brought any improvement in this respect? It is much to be feared they have not. Wealth is, if possible, more than ever the ideal of society, and plain living is terribly at a discount.
We believe, however, that in the deliberate choice of plain living by an influential portion of society there lies a greater potency of social reform than in all the schemes of socialistic reconstruction. The most hurtful thing in the world to-day is the false glamour of wealth. It is against this evil influence that we want an insurrection, not against capital as such. Weaken the fascination of wealth, and, in the same degree that you do so, you increase the moral responsibility of those who are its possessors. The luxury of the present age has run to a dangerous extreme. Advice in such a matter may seem idle, but the discovery that Candide made is one that the world at large must make some day. True happiness is the natural accompaniment of honest industry and moderate living. Such conditions make high thinking possible, and give a savorto all enjoyments. There have been times when men, to save their souls, would go forth into the wilderness or the desert. Such sacrifices are not needed in the present day; there is a very respectable measure of salvation to be won in cultivating a garden.
The thought of the age has now reached a point of development at which it has become almost impossible for any man of trained intellect to say that he receives on authority pure and simple any statement which admits or should admit of direct verification—for example, any statement dealing with matters of a historical or scientific character. This, if we mistake not, is the true secret of the troubles over doctrinal questions which have lately broken out in more than one division of the Christian Church. It is not so much that there has been a revolt against doctrines as such, as that a need is felt by thinking and cultivated men to seek for higher grounds of belief than those hitherto deemed sufficient. This has led to a certain generalization of belief, if we may so call it, which to less cultivated minds looks almost like an abandonment of the most essential doctrines of the Christian faith. Such a view of the matter, however, we hold to be entirely erroneous. The men we are thinking of—and Dr. Briggs and Bishop Potter may be taken as conspicuous examples—have the interests of religion and of their fellow-men at heart. They do not wish to force upon others a mode of looking at religious questions for which they are not prepared; but, for their own part, they find it necessary to restate the articles of their religious faith in terms which do not absolutely conflict with the principles of reason. This rectification of terms is imposed in part by the conditions of thought in the modern world, but to an equal extent at least by what may be called an inward expansion of the doctrines themselves. Who that holds any truth, scientific or other, does not feel impelled to seek for it continually a wider interpretation and application? Not otherwise is it, we hold, with religious doctrines; they have their own law of growth and development, and he who would arrest the process condemns them to atrophy and decay.
It is charged against both the scholars we have mentioned that they speak of the Bible as literature, and say that in determining its meaning we must keep in view the same class of considerations which would guide us in dealing with other literary monuments. There is nothing in this which need alarm any thoughtful person. It would be doing less than justice to the Bible to deny that many parts of it are literature of a very high order; and it would be doing less than justice to our own intellects to deny that the conception of the Bible as literature is a great help to its correct interpretation. Religion, in the view of such men as we have mentioned, does not depend upon the meaning given to a text or the acceptance or rejection of any specific statement of fact. There is nothing specially "religious" in believing that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by St. Paul, or that the adventures of Jonah were precisely as described in the book that bears his name. Grant that the organ of religious apprehension is faith, yet each age must settle for itself the question as to what is the proper scope of faith and what of reason. In the present day reason can deal with many things which at one time were thought to be entirely within the domain of faith, and it would be rash to say that the frontier has even yet received its final rectification. If we rightly understand the position of Dr. Briggs and Bishop Potter, theyhold that religion is essentially an attitude of mind and heart, a seeing of the invisible, an instinctive recognition of a supreme moral authority, a sense that every human being is called to nothing less than holiness of life. They reverence the Scriptures because in them, as in no other body of writings in the world, the realities of religion are both expressed and implied. They do not demand of the Bible perfect agreement with either scientific or historic truth; they are content if they find in it the spiritual basis of human life, a scheme of thought that links the individual human being with an infinite origin and an infinite destiny. From their standpoint the value of the Bible for the highest moral purposes would in no way be increased if every word in it which touches on scientific or historical questions had the seal of all the academies in the Old World and the New.
It is not a difficult thing, nor does it require much wisdom, to harry a man whose independent thinking and moral earnestness have forced him to take a different attitude toward some great question from that which is adopted by the multitude. It is easy to present his views in an invidious light, but a more useful task would be to show that all that is essential and precious in religious belief can exist as well in a philosophical as in a popular form. With such a thesis it may not be quite so easy to "score," but it is a pity when the standards of the reporters' room invade the desk of the literary or theological editor. It is upon such men as we have mentioned, men of competent scholarship and earnest spirit, that the task is laid of purifying and liberating the religious consciousness of the age; and we do not hesitate to say that when, from the vantage height of modern knowledge, they affirm with deep conviction the indestructibleness of the religious sentiment and the everlasting reality of its object, they render a service which, from a religious point of view, can not be overestimated.