Not lightly fallBeyond recallThe written scrolls a breath can float:The crowning fact,The kingliest actOf freedom is the freeman's vote.
Not lightly fallBeyond recallThe written scrolls a breath can float:The crowning fact,The kingliest actOf freedom is the freeman's vote.
Not lightly fall
Beyond recall
The written scrolls a breath can float:
The crowning fact,
The kingliest act
Of freedom is the freeman's vote.
The too common practice in all portions of the Union honors vice and gives scant encouragement to noblest qualities. If a community bestow its rewards and honors on inferior or vicious men, higher qualities will decay and perish or seek other fields. If honors and rewards be allotted to the noble and the good, the demand will develop intelligence and nobility. In America there is lamentably a plentiful lack of great men. Whatever may be the demand, the supply is inadequate. Woe to the country, said Metternich, whose condition and institutions no longer produce great men to manage its affairs. The country needs men of earnest convictions and noble aims, "to whom power is not a possession to be grasped, but a trust to be fulfilled." A nation can have no purer wealth than the stainless honor of its public men. The philosophic Macintosh enunciated almost a maxim when he said, "There can be no scheme or measure as beneficial to the State as the mere existence of men who would not do a base act for any public advantage." By some, politics seems to be regarded as a game in which the sharpest are to win. Federal, State, or municipal government can never be safely committed to any party or men as the result of fraud or connivance at fraud.
Since the Federal Government dispensed with a period of probation as preparatory to suffrage, and refused to leave the whole question of suffrage to the States where it properly belongs, the presence of the negroes becomes to the South fearfully ominous of peril. Giving the right to vote to the ignorant and incapable is only a part of the evils associated with the inhabitancy of such a multitude of citizens of a different and inferior race. Such is the climate of the South, the fertility of soil, the ease of bare subsistence, that little labor and but scant clothing and shelter are needed by the negroes, with their thriftlessness, and without taste or desire for any large measure of artificial comforts, and with few incentives to patient industry. Their presence will prevent any early or large immigration of Europeans. The removal of the negroes is an obvious suggestion, but the policy pursued toward the Indians, undesirable, as coinhabitants, but as capable as negroes of free government, seems impracticable from want of territory for colonization and because of the large number of the negroes. This displacement at present may be impossible, and would certainly be tedious and expensive. Close contact of the two races becomes a necessity of this coöccupancy of territory. The Southern white people should cultivate kindliest feelings and make wise and strenuous efforts for the improvement of their former slaves. Already the whites bear the expense of educating the blacks. In the last six years the expenditure in Virginia for "colored schools" has amounted to near $1,668,000, and it would be safe to say that one and a half millions of this sum were paid by white citizens. So also we take care of their blind, and deaf, and dumb, and idiotic, pay for the trial and safe-keeping of their criminals, and bear the burdens of government. Impartial justice should be administered without reference to race, color, or previous condition; freedom and the right to hold and inherit property should be guaranteed; protection against all violence or wrong should be afforded; but there should be formed no party nor other affiliations which may tend to efface the line of social separation, or ignore the predestined distinction of color. The attempt in Africa to Europeanize the negro and ignore his idiosyncrasies as a race has utterly failed. The races here should be kept from abnormal admixture. Rigid laws, springing from and enforced by an inflexible public opinion, should prevent intermarriage. Miscegenation will degrade the Caucasian. Red and white deteriorate,a fortiori, white and black. The fusion would lower the white race in the scale of civilization, of moral and mental power, and would reproduce the ignorance, superstition, priestcraft, and chronic revolutions of Mexico with her mongrel population.
A felt want of the South is the restoration of old-fashioned love of country. A sore need is to feel in our souls, as a passion, that this isourcountry; thatwehave part and lot in it; and to be deeply interested in its welfare and perpetuity. To keep alive animosities is unchristian. Brooke found it impossible to frame an indictment against a whole people. It ought to be equally hard to involve a whole party, or geographical section, in sweeping accusations of injustice, and tyranny, and fraud. Strong as is the provocation at times to bitterness and hatred, the South should not cherish resentment, but rather seek that which makes for peace and reconciliation. It is better, as far as possible, to obliterate unpleasant memories, to practise toleration and forgiveness, to cultivate a genuine patriotism, ardent love for this ancient birth land of the free. It is easy by cheap rhetoric to open wounds afresh and inflame hostility; but every true son and daughter of the South should strive not to transmit a legacy of hate, nor make our land a Poland or an Ireland. The noble ambition ought rather to be to lift up the South and the United States to the level of its privileges, and in the future to harmonize the ideal and the actual. The South needs the development of her material resources, the diversification of industry, the construction of permanent highways, the power of machinery in its manifold applications, sounder notions of labor, rigid economy and responsibility in all offices. The whole country should encourage universal education in universities, colleges, academies, and public schools; elevate the tone of a free press; preserve an able and independent judiciary; insist upon juster and more enlarged ideas of official duty; maintain the principles of constitutional liberty and absolute freedom of religion, and above all, a spirit of subordination to the divine law, and a reverent acknowledgment of Him in whose hands are the destinies of nations.
J. L. M. Curry.
DRIFT-WOOD.
TALK ABOUT NOVELS.
Ifthe St. Louis preacher who lately tilted against novels chose judiciously his points of attack, he presumably won a victory. His own Sunday-school library is very likely filled with wishy-washy fiction for bright young minds that might be harvesting works worth remembering, whether of romance or history. The prudent Quakers of Germantown rejoice in a free library without a novel, and a librarian who never read one. Indiscriminate novel reading is as sorry a tipple as addiction to newspapers, which also, in fact, are largely works of the imagination. Besides, the moral of even a goody-good story may be ingeniously twisted by perverse readers. The other day a lad was indicted in England for breaking into the Rev. Mr. Sherratt's schoolroom, where he stole some books and cake, trudging off with them in a wheelbarrow at midnight. He was an old pupil, the son of respectable parents; in his pocket was a book entitled "Industry Without Honesty," and his ambition was to become aChevalier d'Industrieof the sort he had been reading about. It is said that Dumas's story, "Monsieur Fromentin," so spread the rage for lottery gambling that the author in great grief bought up and burned every copy he could lay hands on. For generations English youth have turned footpads or thieves, in emulation of Sir Richard Turpin, Lord John Sheppard, and other knights of the road whose careers are set forth in the shining pages of biographical romance. French youngsters have a like exemplar in Louis Cartouche. Two San Francisco lads are now in jail for trying to rob a stagecoach, in Claude Duval style—luckless little victims, knocked down by the passengers in a way not recorded in the novels that had ruined them. Lads are for ever running away to sea in imitation of some Jack Halyard or Ben the Bo's'n; and surely we know that urchins of all ages and sizes are picked up on their way west to "fight Injuns," thanks to their dogs'-eared dime novels narrating the prowess of Buffalo Bills and Texas Jacks. Boyish sympathy goes out toward the Paul Cliffords, the Arams of romance. I remember, as if it were of yesterday, the sad fate of Red Rover, and how the overwrought little reader, when he came to the hero's death, put by the book that he could not finish, and walked about in the twilight of a Saturday whose hours had slipped unnoticed away, inconsolable with sympathy and grief.
But the preacher need not rest his case on "Mike Martin," or "Rinaldo Rinaldini," or "The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main," or any of the predatory heroes embalmed in story for the improvement of youth, since he has also the field of poisonous French romance to complain of, with its imitations in our tongue. In short, he can indict in a lump the bad books of fiction, and against the good he may charge that they exhaust our tears and passion on imaginary distresses.
Still, nothing would then have been said of novels which could not be said in a degree of the newspapers, the drama, the law, the pulpit itself. We must not judge them by their worst fruits. "Pamela" was praised from the pulpits of its day, although, to be sure, it would hardly now be given to young women. I well remember, when prowling about the homestead bookcase, coming upon Rowland Hill's "Village Dialogues." Their characters were fictitious, the distresses imaginary; still I presume the St. Louis preacher would not object to "Socinianism Unmasked," the "Evils of Seduction," and the "Awful Death of Alderman Greedy." Everybody sees how fiction is a weapon of philanthropy. Christ himself taught by parables. Clergymen resort to romance to achieve what the sermon cannot do, and men of science to achieve what the essay cannot do. Religious newspapers publish serial novels. The anti-slavery, temperance, prison reform, and poor law agitations owe immeasurably to novels. Daniel Webster said of Dickens that he had done more to ameliorate the condition of the British poor than all the statesmen that ever sat in Parliament. And this present wonderful movement of the Jews to recover Palestine—what does it not owe to a novel?
A noble influence, too, comes from some novels that do not aim to bedoctrinaireor proselyting. A story of Thackeray is a tonic to the scorn of base action; a story of Charles Kingsley is a trumpet call to Christian duty; a story of George Eliot is an inspiration to high thought and honorable living. Some of her sisterhood are probably capable of uneasily disliking George Eliot because she has a depth of intelligence quite beyond their plummet, which the world admires; but I should think that most women would be proud of the strength and vast influence of one who, in succeeding to the royal line of feminine novelists, has carried its triumphs far beyond anything achieved by Miss Burney, Jane Austin, Miss Porter, Miss Martineau, Charlotte Bronté, and Georges Sand.
We lay aside some authors with a sense of fulness that will not let the attention be immediately distracted to other persons and things. The greatest books put the mind at once into a fruitful state, as if it had received seed of instantly bearing power. Less great books may still give us the desire to imitate their heroes or follow their maxims. Only dead books neither beget new thoughts nor incite by examples. As the characters of children are partly moulded from their surroundings, so the imaginary friends of fiction are mental associates for good or ill. We take heart and hope from the novelist's scenes, or are so wrought upon by his personages that these phantoms move us more than most real men and women. If all we know of Adam Bede is what we read of him, pray what more do we know of Czar Peter? Instead of lamenting the fascination of the story-wright, let us rather plead for its noble use, saying of him, as a great and generous brother writer said of Dickens: "What a place it is to hold in the affections of men! What an awful responsibility hanging over a writer! What man holding such a place, and knowing that his words go forth to vast congregations of mankind—to grown folks, to their children, and perhaps to their children's children—but must think of his calling with a solemn and humble heart! May love and truth guide such a man always!"
Most of us have known an era in life when we looked down on novels like Miss Muloch's, with their gentle refrain: "He was so handsome, how could she help loving him? She was so beautiful, what could he do but adore her?" Better worth reading were stories of frontier trails, knightly tourneys, chases of smuggler and corvette—those stimulating feasts that we swallowed rather too hastily for health, and which, I grant the St. Louis preacher, formed so rich a mixture that nightmare sometimes followed apâtéof adventure and murder on which we had too bountifully supped.
Yet who would willingly forget the terror of that moment when Crusoe discovers the footprints on the lonely shore? I fancy many a lad has borne testimony to the genius of De Foe by popping his curly pate beneath the bed clothes at that awful juncture, in as great fright as if he himself had just seen the track in the sand. Or perhaps, living by the seaside, he has rowed his wherry to some neighboring bunch of rocks, to take possession of it, Crusoe fashion, bribing some less enthusiastic companion to act the rôle of Friday, until, unworthy of his faithful prototype, the extemporized Friday sulks and throws off his allegiance. I lately heard that Crusoe's isle was now tenanted by industrious German colonists, who had planted and stocked it, not like Robinson, but under all agricultural advantages, and that Juan Fernandez was a regular entrepot for whale ships. Think of it! Yankee tars revictual where the lonely mariner saw cannibals feasting! But it is only Selkirk's domain that is thus invaded; Crusoe's right there is none to dispute; safe in the keeping of genius, his monarchy can no more be annexed by filibuster or colonist than the magic isle of Prospero.
Musing on popular novels, one is struck by the changes of fashion in fiction. Who now reads "Clarissa," which Dr. Johnson pronounced the first book of the world for knowledge of the human heart; which D'Alembert styled unapproachably greater than any romance ever written in any language; for which Diderot predicted an immortality as illustrious as that of Homer? Who reads "Cecilia," which Burke sat up all night to read? The romances over which our great grandmothers simpered and sighed are to our age intolerable bores. Reade, not Richardson, is the man for our money; Miss Braddon, not Miss Burney, is the rage at the circulating libraries. Whither are gone those stories that a few years ago could not be printed fast enough—"The Lamplighter," "Hot Corn," and the rest of that brood? They are hidden under dust in the alcoves, or have been carted off to the pulp mill. Could mind of man have fancied, an oblivion so swift for those favorites of the public? Could mortal ken have foretold its present fate for the "Wide, Wide World"?—a story now quite dropped out of sight, but once the town's rage, and whose heroine I remember as a sort of inexhaustible human watering cart with the tear tap always turned on.
What has become, too, of those learned novels, patterned after Bulwer—extracts from Lemprière in dialogue form, sandwiched with layers of low life? "Surely, my dear niece, you remember what Athenæaus quotes on this subject from the Leontium of Hermesianax of Colophon, the friend of Philetas?" "Perfectly, aunt, and methinks mention is also made of the same elegiac poem in Pausanias, and again in Antoninus Liberalis, the latter saying," etc. Where, I say, are the novels in that vein, with their charming mixture of murder, mythology, and metaphysics? They have their run, strut their brief hour, and give way to some "Madcap Violet" or "Helen's Babies." Never fear a lack of fresh novels. If the lads lose Mayne Reid, they find Jules Verne. The secret is an open one: the novel is the best paid branch of literature—always excepting Mr. Gladstone's pamphlets. Times have changed since "Evelina" was sold for £20.
Perhaps of all novelists Victor Hugo receives the largest earnings for a single work. One of his clerical enemies, Mgr. de Ségur, has bitterly attacked him for his gains—"$100,000 for 'Les Misérables' alone," said the critic in angry extravagance. But Hugo's admirers will not grudge his gains.
The English have put a premium on prolix novels by giving them a regulation length of just three volumes, to be cold for a guinea and a half. This droll uniformity has much less basis of reason than the old custom of writing tragedies and comedies just five acts long; for there is sense in making a play last out an evening. Trouble to writer and weariness to reader must come of spinning a novel against space, overlaying a plot with trivial incidents, and stuffing a story with padding, merely to reach a standard of length both arbitrary and absurd. Yet prodigious was the patience of our novel-reading ancestry prior to Fielding. The "Grand Cyrus" was issued in ten volumes, "Clarissa Harlowe" in eight, and sometimes an heroic romance reached twelve. Jules Janin puts Richardson on Shakespeare's level, and modern French readers appreciate "Clarissa" more than English—but they get it abridged. Mr. Dallas, following Janin, has abridged the famous novel with care for English readers, too, and a more recent editor likewise aims to evade its monotony by striking out "tediously unnecessary passages and unimportant details," though old-fashioned readers may still like to take "Clarissa" in all its prolixity. As to the romances that preceded it, they seem to our age duller than any ever written—"huge folios of inanity," said Sir Walter, "over which our ancestors yawned themselves to sleep." I warrant their descendants never yawned over "Guy Mannering."
Still, modern novels as a class are more apt to be voluble than prolix. Story-writers like Trollope, Mrs. Edwards, and McCarthy amaze us at the ductility which the English tongue assumes for them. They seem less to compose than toreel offtheir pages. To Trollope's free-and-easy flow is there any stop? None, surely, through mental exhaustion. His bright loquacity and productiveness remind one of that bewitched salt mill in the story of Nicholas, which ground on for ever, without effort or wearying, until it had salted the whole sea.
PRIMOGENITURE AND PUBLIC BEQUESTS.
Somethingwas said, in a former "Driftwood" essay, regarding the frequent dedications of private fortunes, in America, to public uses. We see a philanthropic millionaire stripping himself, even in hale life, of all his wealth save a slender annuity and the portions reserved for his heirs and legatees; or we see the bulk of a great fortune given to charities in a testamentary bequest.
Certainly Americans, though often overreaching in making a fortune, are proverbially lavish in distributing it. New England, the home of 'cuteness in trade, is extraordinary for the number and extent of its charitable bequests. Americans may do things that an Englishman will not in getting the best of a bargain, but quite as quickly as the average Englishman, they give the whole fruits of the sharp trade to some sufferer. Unscrupulous in a contest of wits, they yet have bowels of compassion beyond many other nations, are perhaps the least cruel of all, and have made American private endowments of educational and charitable institutions famous the world over.
But can we put all the credit of these endowments to the score of national character? Is not some part traceable simply to the abolition of the old privileges and customs of primogeniture? I fancy that were it American usage to pass the bulk of great estates to a succession of eldest sons or to the nearest heir, we should see fewer great bequests to the public. "The heir" would ever be an overshadowing figure in the rich man's plans; whereas now, if kith and kin be well provided for, no one finds it strange that the bulk of an estate like Mr. Peabody's or Mr. Lick's or Mr. Cornell's should go to public education and charity.
Our English-speaking race, as we all know, has ever had a thirst for posthumous power; so bent were our ancestors on tying up their estates in perpetuity that when the law came in to forbid it many were the devices to prolong the grasp. Privileges of primogeniture are still jealously guarded in England, for the sake of accumulating family honors and wealth. Even in America older brothers sometimes oddly think themselves sole managers of the parental estate—a fancy due, perhaps, to the influence of our English derivation. We see its traces where even an estimable oldest brother, as self-appointed head of the family, deals with the inherited estate as if it were all his own: prescribes the household expenses, "invests" the portions of others as may seem good unto him, loses them in his speculations without qualm of conscience, or doles out from his gains to his younger brothers and sisters with the air of a munificent prince giving bounties. Paterfamilias was eminently just in taking him into the historic firm on a third share, but it would be preposterous to do the same by brother Tom. Let Tom and Harry, after a few years' longer probation of clerkship than Primus needed, be generously taken in; but let them divide a third of the partnership between them. Primogeniture, I repeat, still leaves its curious traces with us in these unpleasant delusions of the oldest male child; but the abolition of its ancient privileges, and the habit of distributing fortunes and opportunities share and share alike among equal heirs or legatees, have accustomed many rich men besides childless millionaires to sparing a generous portion for charities and colleges. This view is strengthened by observing that the famous dedications of private fortunes to public uses are made by men who have earned their wealth, not inherited it. Inherited wealth is more likely to be transmitted to its owner's heirs than broken up for public benefactions. And so, in fine, we may trace a part of our national celebrity for public bequests to the lack of primogenital laws and of any social system of retaining the bulk of family wealth in a line of eldest sons.
We are sometimes unjust toward men of prodigious wealth who disappoint public expectation by bequeathing nothing for public purposes. The American who keeps fifty millions intact in his family only does what is customary in other lands, and what may be done without reproach. If he break no law, a man may do what he will with his own—although, to be sure, so may his countrymen talk as they will of what he does; and they will hardly lump in a common eulogy the public benefactors and those who devise none of their prodigious wealth to the public weal. For these latter the one or two of their fellow men who have become millionaires by their wills may properly raise memorial churches, and stained windows, and chimes of bells; but such wills have earned no pæans of public gratitude.
Philip Quilibet.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
PHOTOGRAPHING FROM THE RETINA.
Oneof the first fruits of the daguerreotypic art was the suggestion that unknown murderers could be detected by photographing the last image left on the retina of the murdered person's eye. The idea that this could be done seems to have taken strong hold of many imaginations, and we believe this suggestion is repeated to the police authorities of New York on the occurrence of every noticeable and mysterious murder. That such a detective task will ever be accomplished by photography is extremely doubtful, on account of the length of time that usually passes before the discovery of a murder. But science has now advanced so far that the image on the retinahas been fixed and photographed. This has been done by Prof. Kühne of Heidelberg, but not with human subjects, as decapitation is one necessary part of the process. Prof. Kühne placed a rabbit four and a half feet from a closed window, in the shutter of which was an opening twelve inches square. The animal's head was first covered by a black cloth for five minutes and then exposed for three minutes. The head was then instantly cut off, and one eye taken out in a room illuminated by yellow light. The eyeball was opened and instantly plunged into a five per cent. solution of alum. This occupied two minutes, and the other eye, still remaining in the head, was then exposed at the window just as the first had been. It was then taken out and placed in the alum solution like its fellow. The next morning the two retinæ were carefully isolated, separated from the optic nerve, and turned. On a beautiful rose red ground a sharp image, somewhat more than one millimetre (one-twenty-fifth inch) square was found. The image on the first retina—that which was exposed during life—was somewhat reddish and not so sharply defined as that on the other.
This fixature of the last impression on the living retina is by no means an accidental discovery, but is the final step in a laborious series of delicate researches. Nor is it the triumph of one man alone, the preliminary work having been performed by two distinguished physiologists. Prof. Boll of Rome discovered that the external layer of the retina in all living animals has a purple color, which is destroyed by light. During life the color is perpetually restored by darkness, but after death, Boll thought, it disappeared entirely. Prof. Kühne followed up this wonderful discovery and confirmed it in general, while correcting some of Boll's conclusions. He first ascertained that death does not necessarily destroy the color, since a retina that is not exposed to white light, but is kept in a room lighted by a yellow sodium flame, retains this "vision purple" for twenty-four or twenty-eight hours, even though incipient decomposition may have set in. It is destroyed at the temperature of boiling water or by immersion in alcohol, glacial acetic acid, and strong solution of soda, but in strong ammonia, saturated solution of common salt, or glycerine, it remains undiminished for twenty-four hours. On testing the effect of different colored lights upon this "vision purple," he found that the most refrangible rays change it most, while red has hardly more effect than yellow light. The color is not so delicate as Boll supposed. A few moments' exposure to daylight does not bleach the retina. This requires exposure for a considerable time to direct sunlight. The source of the color was found to be the inner surface of the choroid upon which the retina lies. If a portion of the retina is disengaged from the choroid and raised up, it bleaches, though the remainder, still attached portion, retains its color. If the raised flap is carefully replaced upon the choroid, it regains its purple hue. This restoration is believed to be a function of the living choroid, and probably of the retinal epithelium, though it is independent of the black pigment which this epithelium contains. This vision purple is the latest discovery in optical physiology, and it cannot fail to be a most important one. How far it will alter the received views upon the subject of changes in the strength of vision, which are now attributed to alterations in the distance of the crystalline lens, cannot be foretold. But it may be found possible to stimulate by drugs the restorative action of the choroid, and thus by gaining increased "definition," improve weak sight. As to the detection of murderers by photographing the last retinal picture from their victims' eyes, while these discoveries do not leave this an impossibility, they do not much improve the probability of its ever being done. Very often the sight of the assassin is not the last which comes within the victim's vision. Too long a time also usually elapses before discovery. These and similar difficulties must prevent the utilization of these discoveries in this direction, even if they should prove to be in themselves all that is hoped. The retinal picture has not yet been photographed, but it seems probable, from the above recounted experiments, that it can be.
ACTION OF ORGANIC ACIDS ON MINERALS.
Dr. H. C. Boltonof the New York School of Mines has made the interesting discovery that minerals may be decomposed by boiling with organic acids, just as they are by treatment with the strong mineral acids. He has tried the action of such acids as citric, tartaric, oxalic, acetic, malic, and other acids, on finely powdered carbonates, silicates, sulphides, and other classes of mineral. All the carbonates examined (fourteen in number) dissolved with effervescence, sulphides were decomposed with evolution of sulphuretted hydrogen, and silicates with formation of gelatinous silica. This important discovery will greatly add to the resources of the mineralogist, who is compelled to do much of his work in the field. Hitherto he has been debarred from using the mineral acids (the action of which sometimes forms a decisive test) by the impossibility of carrying them in the pocket or wallet without danger. The organic acids are solid, and can be conveniently stowed away. Their action, however, is not so decided as that of the mineral acids, but this is not always a defect, but offers additional means of determination. For example, all the specimens of bornite and pyrrhotite examined yielded sulphuretted hydrogen with tartaric, citric, and oxalic acids, but chalcopyrite and pyrite do not. On the other hand, the use of the organic acids may give rise in some cases to the formation of nitric acid, which in its nascent condition will afford a very powerful agent of decomposition. Thus all the sulphides examined (seventeen), with the exception of molybdenite and cinnabar, were quickly attacked by citric or tartaric acid, to which a little potassium nitrate had been added. Potassium chlorate produces a similar though slower action. These examples are sufficient to show that Dr. Bolton has found a promising field of inquiry, and, singular to say, considering the attention which the action of organic acids has received, it is a field believed to be entirely new. He is continuing his researches.
SCIENTIFIC ORCHESTRATION.
Prof. Mayer has turned his valuable researches in acoustical science to æsthetic uses, and criticises the present mode of arranging orchestras, the defects of which he proves by experiment. He took an old silver watch, beating four times a second, and caused it to gain thirty seconds per hour, so that every two minutes its tick coincided with the tick of an ordinary spring balance American clock, also making four beats the second. The latter was placed several feet, and the watch two feet, from the ear. In this position the ticks of the watch were lost fornine seconds, about the time of coincidence. The tick of the watch disappeared, "with a sharpchirp, like a cricket's, and reappears with a sound like that made by a boy's marble falling upon others in his pocket." This experiment shows most effectively that one sonorous impression may overcome and obliterate another, but to do so it must be more intense and of lower pitch. If of higher pitch, it cannot neutralize the other sound, however much the first may exceed the latter in intensity. This discovery, Prof. Mayer thinks, is, "next after the demonstration of the fact that the ear is capable of analyzing compound musical sounds into their constituent or partial simple tones, the most important addition yet made to our knowledge of hearing." High sounds cannot obliterate low ones, but, on the contrary, the sensation of each partial tone of which compound musical sounds is formed is diminished by all the tones below it in pitch. These discoveries he applies to orchestration as follows: "In a large orchestra I have repeatedly witnessed the complete obliteration of all sounds from violins by the deeper and more intense sounds of the wind instruments, the double basses alone holding their own. I have also observed the sounds of the clarinets lose their peculiar quality of tone, and consequent charm, from the same cause. No doubt the conductor of the orchestra heard all his violins ranged as they always are, close around him, and did not perceive that his clarinets had lost that quality of tone on whichthe composerhad relied for producing a special character of expression. The function of the conductor seems to be threefold: First, to regulate and fix the time. Second, to regulate the intensity of the sounds produced by individual instruments, for the purpose of expression. Third, to give the proper quality of tone orfeelingto the whole sound of his orchestra, considered as a single instrument, by regulating therelative intensitiesof sounds produced by the various classes of instruments employed. Now this third function, the regulation of relative intensities, has hitherto been discharged through the judgment of the ears of a conductor, who is placed in the most disadvantageous position for judging by his ears. Surely he is not conducting for his own personal gratification, but for the gratification of his audience, whose ears stand in very different relations from his own in respect to their distance from the various instruments in action. Is it not time that he should pay more attention to his third function, and place himself in the position occupied by an average hearer? This position would be elevated, and somewhere in the midst of the audience. That the position at present occupied by the conductor of an orchestra has often allowed him to deprive his audience of some of the most delicate and touching qualities of orchestral and concerted vocal music, I have no doubt, and I firmly believe that when he changes his position in the manner now proposed, the audience will have some of that enjoyment which he has too long kept to himself." These views were verified by Prof. Mayer visiting different parts of the house during a public performance, and observing the different effects of the music. It is not to be supposed that a satisfactory change can be made at once. A quantitative analysis of the compound tones of all musical instruments must be made. On this work he is now engaged. One noteworthy result of his researches is the opinion that orchestral instruments should be made on different principles from those used in solos. The reason for this is, that certain over tones should predominate in orchestral instruments in order to give them their due expression in the midst of graver sounds. These exaggerated peculiarities will unfit them to be played alone. If the learned Professor's views are carried out, a theatre or opera manager will be obliged to own the instruments of his orchestra, and perhaps to have different sets for different musical works!
THE NITROGEN OF PLANTS.
The direct source of the nitrogen contained in plants is an unsolved mystery, though the ultimate source of much of it must be the atmosphere. A wheat crop gave on unmanured land from 15.9 to 25.2 pounds of nitrogen, per acre, yearly, but the amount found in the rainwater of the same district was only from 6.23 to 8.58 pounds per acre. Singular to say, the use of a fertilizer, called a "complex mineral manure" in the reports, added only about two pounds of nitrogen per acre. But the case is altered when potassic manure is used, and especially when applied to land bearing beans. Such a crop gains 13½ pounds of nitrogen by the addition of saltpetre, or 28 per cent. A similar result was obtained with clover—a leguminous crop. A potassic fertilizer increased the yield of nitrogen one-third. One of the anomalies observed in the study of plant growth is that a good crop instead of exhausting the soil seems to improve it. The better the crop, and the more nitrogen removed, the better will the succeeding crop be. Thus clover removes a much larger amount of nitrogen than wheat, the quantity being on unmanured land, say 30.5 pounds per acre for clover and 20.7 pounds for wheat, and yet the wheat crop is improved if clover is occasionally interpolated or a fair rotation of crops kept up. In 1874 barley succeeding barley gave 39.1 pounds of nitrogen, while barley following clover gave 69.4 pounds of nitrogen withdrawn from an acre of soil. These amounts take no account of the nitrogen carried off by the drainage of the soil, which analysis of drainwater proves to be considerable. The source of all this nitrogen is undoubtedly the atmosphere, but the mode of conveying it into the soil is unknown.
IMPORTANT PREHISTORIC DISCOVERIES.
Few persons are aware of the wealth of what are called "prehistoric" remains. The finding of an isolated skeleton, in a cave, with stalagmite completely covering it, is accepted as an occurrence that is not very remarkable. However ancient it may be, the preservation of the bones is exceptional. But a late discovery in France, near Hastiére-sur-Meuse, is of much more importance. No less than fifteen burial caverns were found, and from the five that have been explored no less than fifty-five human skeletons have been taken, among which are thirty-five well-preserved skulls.
In addition to these "finds" the plateaux yielded sixteen dwelling places of the old inhabitants from which have been taken a quantity of stone implements. These show the age of the skeletons to be that of the polished, or "new" stone period. The prospect of being able to restore the men who lived before the earliest recorded dates is now very good. Some hundreds of their skeletons, with a valuable series of skulls and enormous collections of their handiworks, are now in the museums of the world.
Some of the more remarkable of these discoveries have been alluded to at different times in this Miscellany. One of the latest and most interesting consists of some pointed sticks, found in a Swiss coal bed, the pointing having been done by hand. It may be thought difficult to establish so remarkable a fact in a mass of coal in which the rods have been pressed flat and perfectly carbonized. But a microscopic examination of one of these pieces shows that the fibres of the wood run in two different directions, the two systems meeting at an angle. One of the sticks has had its end shaved down, the cut surface being then applied to the other, and some substance, probably bark, being wound around the joint. The marks of this wrapping are perfectly distinct, and in one case the wrapping itself remains. As the bark used for this purpose was different from the natural bark of the rods, the microscope is now able to distinguish between the two, though both are turned to coal. Descriptions and illustrations of these interesting relics are published in the "Primeval World of Switzerland," by the celebrated Professor Heer. There is no doubt they formed part of some basket work. Their age is still doubtful, but must be very great.
THE PHYLLOXERA CONQUERED.
The investigation instituted by the French Academy of Sciences into the best means of destroying the phylloxera, or grapevine pest, has ended in the conclusion that the sulpho-carbonates are a complete antidote to these destructive insects. This result has already been announced in this Miscellany, and it only remains to explain the action of these salts. Under the influence of carbonic acid, which is always present in soils containing organic substances, they decompose. A carbonate is formed, and sulphuretted hydrogen and bisulphide of carbon are evolved. Both of these are deadly poisons to the phylloxera as well as to man. To complete the fitness of these salts to agricultural uses, the sulpho-carbonate of potassium has an excellent effect upon the vines, potash being one of the most valued constituents of manures. Success in using the antidote depends upon bringing it in contact with every part of the root-system of the plant. This can be done by dissolving the salt, but it is better to mix it with half its weight of lime and sprinkle it on the ground at the beginning of the rainy season, which in France lasts from October to March. M. Mouillefert, who examined this subject under direction of the Academy, reports that as an antidote the sulpho-carbonates are a proved success, and nothing now remains but to educate the vine growers to their proper use. This subject has peculiar interest to Americans, for the phylloxera is our evil gift to France. It is matter of common observation, both in animal and vegetable physiology, that one race or species may live in comfort with an enemy—be it a disease or a parasite—which is destructive to other species. The American vineyards are by no means free from the phylloxera. On the contrary, they are full of this insect, but the vines do not lose their hardiness in consequence. They flourish in spite of their enemy.
THE SUN'S HEAT.
Prof. Langley of the Allegheny observatory has made a direct comparison between the heat of the sun and that of the flame in the mouth of a Bessemer steel convertor. Estimates of the sun's temperature probably vary among themselves more than any other attempts at scientific knowledge, ranging from 10,000,000 down to 1,500 deg. We have already published in this Miscellany some late French determinations which place it below 2,000 deg. C. Prof. Langley's choice of a standard is excellent. The flame of the Bessemer convertor results from the burning of carbon, silicon, iron, and manganese within the vessels, the result of using this once novel fuel being a heat so great that the most refractory iron or steel is melted to thin fluidity and so much excess of heat imparted, that the mass will remain fluid, without further heat, a considerable time. The temperature of the flame is not known, though 4,000 or 5,000 deg. Fahr. has been suggested as an approximation. This does not vitiate Prof. Langley's experiment, for he used it merely as one of the most powerful artificial sources of light obtainable. His method was to compare its light with that of the sun by an arrangement that resembled a camera obscura, the light from the sun and the flame being repeatedly superposed upon each other. The arrangement worked admirably, and the observer was able to note the spots on the sun. He found that the intensely hot flame was like a dark spot compared to the sun's light and that the latter must be at least 2,168 times hotter than the flame. This carries the result in favor of the largest estimates. The flame of the convertor is not so hot as the melted steel from which it comes, but it offers better opportunities for observation. The steel itself as it was poured from the convertor was found to be not more than one-sixty-fourth as hot as the sun.
DEAF MUTES IN POLAND.
Mr. George Darwin has brought forward statistics to prove that the intermarriage of near relations does not have the unfavorable effect upon offspring which is commonly supposed. But the director of the Warsaw Institute for Deaf Mutes and the Blind combats this theory, and says that the registers kept at that and similar institutions support the popular opinion. The system of instruction at this asylum is very perfect. Mimic language being almost totally prohibited, the pupils are taught to understand the motion of the lips and to speak more or less distinctly; and after a four years' residence in the Institute, they generally attain in both a high degree of perfection. With great judgment the managers have made the technical instruction at the school of the best kind, so that the pupils readily find situations on leaving, and indeed there are never enough to fill all the situations offered. This appears to be the true method with students who would otherwise find themselves at a disadvantage with more favored competitors.
THE COMPASS PLANT.
The well-known dispute as to the "compass plant" has recently been settled by Mr. Meehan in a manner which recalls the opinions of judicial officers who deal with other than scientific questions. One party of observers say that this plant always points its leaves north and south, the leaf standing edgewise to the earth and the two sides facing to the east and west. This plant is found on the prairies and plains, and is known scientifically assilphium lacinatum, popularly as pilot weed, rosin weed, and turpentine weed. It stands from three to six feet high, and the trappers and Indians are said to find their way in dark nights by feeling its leaves. These assertions of polarity are denied by the other party. Mr. Meehan now says that both are right. When the leaves are young and small the pointing to the north is unmistakable, but when they become larger, are beaten down by rains, and weighted with sand and dew, they are not able to recover their lost bearings.
BALLOONS IN METEOROLOGY.
Balloon ascensions are quietly but frequently used by scientific men for the purpose of studying the upper parts of the atmosphere. Russian savants have lately paid especial attention to this work, but have been prevented from extending their examinations to any great height. Prof. Mendeleef of St. Petersburg now undertakes to accomplish this also, and devotes the profits of two books published by him to the construction of a balloon. This is to have a capacity of two or three thousand cubic yards, and will be filled by means arranged by him. France also pursues this path of investigation with great vigor. Count Bathyani recently took up a radiometer to a height of about a mile. At the earth it made in the shade thirty-five revolutions per minute. At the height of 5,000 feet it made sixty-four revolutions, also in the shade. In the sun, 2,300 feet above the earth, it made fifty-four revolutions. Count Bathyani also took up an ethereal apparatus for the purpose of condensing water vapor at various heights, in order to collect the microscopic particles floating in the air. This line of investigation will be continued by means of an apparatus filled with methylic ether. This will give a temperature of -20 deg. C., or -15 deg. Fahr. The moisture will condense as ice which will be scraped off the vessels. All the solid particles floating in the immediate neighborhood of the apparatus will also be obtained.
THE LEAD PRODUCT.
The mining of lead is a business in which Americans are successfully using the remarkable resources of this country. In 1866 the amount made here was only 14,342 tons, while we imported 23,330 tons. In fact the importation has exceeded the home product ever since 1850 with the exception of one year—1860. This improper "balance of trade" was due to the system and intelligence with which foreign smelting works are conducted, and the ignorance which prevailed in our own country where the mining resources are really superior to those of Europe. But this state of things has changed with the foundation of mining schools and the spread of mining knowledge in this country. In 1873 the "balance" turned the other way. The importations have been since then 22,114, 17,674, 7,305, and 4,685 tons; while the home product shows a rise corresponding closely to this falling off, being for the same years, 37,983, 46,500, 53,250, 57,210 tons. In fact we export as much as we import, for the 4,300 tons of pig lead imported is balanced by the quantity sent back to Europe in the form of bullets. This change in the business is traceable to the fact that refining has been found to pay in America, and our lead is thus in request by the white paint makers. For years our product lay under a stigma, and it was said that it was not suited to the manufacture of the best lead. This evident error has been corrected; the refined virgin lead of Missouri and Illinois makes the best white lead, and the mining of the metal is not likely to suffer from so many causes of depression again. The Territories are now large producers, the five principal sources of supply being in 1876—
The production of some few selected places was: Palmer mine, 466 tons, Mine LaMotte, 1,657, St. Joseph mines, 1,938, Granby mines, 4,423 tons, these being all Missouri; Omaha smelting works, 11,336 tons, St. Louis and Pennsylvania smelting works, 8,000 tons, New York and Newark works, 7,776 tons, California, Nevada, and Utah works, 6,518. The latter four items amount to 33,630 tons, which is all made from silver-lead ores, mostly by the zinc process of refining.
ARCTIC EXPLORATION.
In fitting out the lately returned Arctic expedition the English government attempted to make it the last one of its kind. That is, it appropriated a million dollars and engaged the coöperation of the best scientific authorities, and sent out its best men, who departed in the full knowledge that their enterprise had aroused a real national enthusiasm, and that the most strenuous effort was expected of them. The purpose of these accumulated advantages was to so fortify the voyagers that their success or failure should satisfy the world upon the subject of polar exploration. They went, struggled so bravely that their loss of life was greater than on any expedition since the fatal one under Franklin—and came back without succeeding. Their commander deliberately declared success to be impossible from the nature of the difficulties which always exist near the pole, and that this goal of nine centuries' effort would never be reached.
But, in spite of Captain Nares's positiveness, the Arctic question is now just where he took it up. Seventy miles has been added to the distance covered, but the world is just as unsatisfied as ever, and polar exploration is just as ardently desired as ever. The spirit is unchanged, but the name is altered. Against the uniform report of the explorers who have been so numerous during the last decade that a mere journey to the pole is not likely to yield much addition to man's knowledge, it is hardly possible for even the most enthusiastic navigators to stand up. But when Lieutenant Payer, on returning from the Austrian expedition north of Spitzbergen, declared that there was but one way to make the icy northern regions yield up their scientific secrets, and that was by colonizing parties within the Arctic circle, to stay there long enough to make a continued study of its meteorology and physics, the scientific world gave him its unqualified support. Several nations have been reported to be on the point of organizing such a colony, but America seems likely to be the first to act energetically on the suggestion. Captain Howgate of the Signal Service Corps has petitioned Congress for $50,000 with which to send out a company of forty men, provided with supplies for three years. They are to be taken by a government vessel to some point between 81 deg. and 83 deg., the route taken to be by Smith's sound. There they will be left, the vessel returning. An annual visit is to be paid the colony, but otherwise they will be left to themselves. To prevent the scandalous quarrels which ruined the Polaris expedition, the whole party will be enlisted in the United States service, and strict discipline will be maintained. The fact that the suggestion for the expedition comes from a Signal Service officer will give the country confidence in the plan, and also ensure proper attention to that science which may hope to reap the greatest benefit from Arctic observations, the science of meteorology and cosmic physics. The scientific members of the party are to include an astronomer, one or more meteorologists, and two or more naturalists. The project is by no means on a sure footing as yet, but it has got so far as to be favorably reported on by the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives. It certainly embodies the plan which scientific men all over the world unite in endorsing, and which seems to offer the most promising rewards to effort. But disguise the fact as we will, it still remains true that it is in exploration and discovery that such schemes find their surest ground for support. The gains to science have uniformly been greater than the satisfaction to curiosity, and this plan is professedly made with especial care to secure the greatest return to science. But the march to the pole is the thing that is inviting, and it entices now just as strongly, after all the failures, as it ever did. Captain Howgate's plan provides for this. During their three years' stay his men will be on the watch for opportunities to advance northward, and if they find none, they intend to make such a study of currents, ice, and seasons as will give the cue to others in after years.
The principal difficulties in pushing far northward may be summed up in a few words. The attempt must be made in summer (the Arctic day), when the ice is liable to break up. A boat must therefore be carried, and this makes the sledge train heavy. The ice to be crossed is extremely rough, and explorers have not been able to find smoother spots of any considerable size. By rough we mean that it is covered with deep rifts, blocks and snow drifts from five to twenty feet or more in height, and these impediments cover the surface so closely as to leave no alternative but a slow tugging of the sledges over the most available parts of them. The English expedition found these drifts to lie directly across their course, having been formed by a west wind. The labor of crossing them is performed with the thermometer far below the freezing point. There is no fire, provisions have to be carefully husbanded, sleep is dangerous unless frequently broken, and if one of the party breaks down, the strength of the whole is seriously diminished, while its task is greatly increased. Such has been the history of exploration up to within 400 miles of the pole, and it is at least probable that many of these difficulties will be intensified as that point is reached. The north pole may now be considered to occupy the centre of an area 800 miles in diameter, the condition of things within which it is not possible even to conjecture. We may plausibly suppose (1) that it is not land, for the ice of the Arctic sea is never more than 150 feet thick, and there are no glaciers; (2) that it is a shallow sea; and (3) that the precipitation of moisture in the centre must be considerable, as the ice is moving in all directions from the centre during the summer. The theory of an open sea at the pole is now discarded by most scientific men, and, we believe, by all experienced explorers except Hayes. In the present state of knowledge it rests upon the presumption that the polar sea is very shallow, so that the deep and warm currents which are known to enter the Arctic ocean may be forced to the surface there; and that the ice drift removes the ice as fast as it forms.
EXPLORATION NOTES.
ThePortuguese government has decided to spend $100,000 on a scientific expedition to Central Africa.
Everyexploring expedition across the continent of Australia has to taste the extreme difficulties of travel in the barren parts of that extraordinary country. Mr. Giles, the last explorer, says: "From the end of the watershed in longitude 120 deg. 20 min., the latitude being near the 24th parallel, to the Rawlinson range of my last horse expedition, in longitude 127 deg., the country was all open spinifex sandhill desert. At starting into the desert most of the camels were continually poisoned, the plant which poisoned them not being allied in any way to the poison plants of the settled districts of Western Australia. I now know it well, and have brought specimens. The longest stretch without water was a ten days' march. One old cow camel died after reaching the water. We had some rain on May 8 before reaching the Ashburton, and some of it must have extended into the desert. It was the only chance water we obtained."
Prof. Nordenskiold, who sailed from Norway to the mouth of the river Jenesei, in Siberia, is now preparing for a voyage from that river along the shore of the Arctic sea to Behrings straits. It may be that the navigation of the Arctic sea, which is impossible away from land, can be accomplished in its neighborhood. The return journey will be made by way of China, India, and the Suez canal, the whole forming the most remarkable voyage ever undertaken by one ship.
Bradford, Pennsylvania, is lighted with gas from a well situated about two miles from town.
Inthe United States heavy rains are less frequent between 4:35p.m.and 11p.mthan at any other part of the day. The greatest number are between 7:35a.m.and 4:35p.m.
Inthe Alps the snow line is 8,900 feet high on the northern side and 9,200 feet on the southern. In the Himalayas it is 16,600 feet on the northern side and 16,200 feet on the southern.
Theeminent physicist, Prof. J. C. Poggendorff, for many years professor in the Berlin university, and editor of "Poggendorff's Annalen," has died in Berlin, in his eighty-first year.
Themagnitude of the prizes which may be drawn by exploring antiquarians in Europe is shown by the recent finding near Verona, Italy, of two large amphoræ containing 50,000 coins of the Emperor Gallienus and his immediate successors. The majority of them are of bronze, but there are some of silver. Nearly all of them are in the finest state of preservation, and are so fresh from the mint as to make it evident that they were never put into circulation.
Prof. Loomissays that in this country great rainfalls do not generally continue over eight hours, and very rarely do they continue for twenty-four hours, either at one place or a number of places considered successively.
Accordingto the Washington "Gazette," the paint makers are grinding up Egyptian mummies for the fine brown color which they make when powdered. This color is due to the asphaltum with which the cloths wrapped around the mummies was impregnated.
TheWashington monument is probably doomed. In its present condition it is a grievous eyesore in the Washington landscape, and a board of army engineers now say that its foundations are not strong enough to permit raising the shaft higher, and it is proposed to take it down.
Mr. H. Byassonhas produced a kind of petroleum by the mutual action of steam, carbonic acid, and sulphuretted hydrogen in presence of iron at a white heat. All these substances are known to be contained in the rocks of the earth's crust, which also has at various times afforded the necessary heat.
Gold, though the principal standard of value, is not moved about the world much. The entire import of London, the greatest banking city in the world, was only $116,222,350 in 1876, and the export was $81,097,850. Nearly the whole of the difference went into the vaults of the Bank of England, the stock of which increased $34,992,020.
Prof. Haweshas proved the existence of metallic iron in the basalt dykes of New Hampshire. It exists as small specks in the centre of grains of magnetite. This contradicts the theory that the metallic iron of the dykes is the result of carbon acting upon the magnetite in them, and proves that the iron is the primary and the magnetite the secondary product.
Thoughagricultural professorships are not considered to have produced all the good that was once expected from them, there is one lately established by the French Government which might well be copied in other countries. It is a professorship of comparative agriculture at Vincennes, and its occupant will make a systematic comparison of home and foreign agriculture.
Thecharacter of the Yale lectures to mechanics is seen from the following titles to some of the lectures: "Forester and Forest Products," Prof. William H. Brewer; "Mosses," Prof. C. D. Eaton; "Our Red Sandstone," G. W. Hawes; "The Usury Laws," Prof. F. A. Walker; and "Sanitary Engineering," Prof. W. P. Trowbridge. The course contains thirteen lectures, and costs $1.
A Frenchpaper says that "an American company proposes to introduce fur seals from Alaska into Lake Superior! The temperature of the lake is considered to be sufficiently cold for the purpose, and the company hopes to obtain from Congress and the Canadian Parliament an act protecting the creatures from slaughter for twenty years, after which time it is supposed that they will be sufficiently acclimatized and numerous to form subjects of sport." As the fur seal is a marine animal and Lake Superior is a body of fresh water, the success of the experiment, and even the authenticity of the story, is at least doubtful!
M. Giffard, inventor of the steam injector which bears his name, has entered upon a line of invention of which Americans have been very fond. He is building a small steamer to ply, during the French Exposition, over the three miles of the Seine between Pont Royal and the Exhibition. The steamer will be thirty metres, or one hundred feet long and three and a half metres, or eleven feet eight inches broad, and is to make forty-five miles an hour! The length is to the beam, therefore, as 8½ to 1. It is singular that marine engineering has gained but little from these attempts to attain excessive speeds. The real advances have been obtained by small successive improvements.