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Q 1 7 1 . w 18""*" """"""*' ^"'"'>' 
 ^'!;,S?,^^±,'.«P.t.H^y: its successes and 
 
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THE WONDERFUL 
 CENTURY 
 
 ITS SUCCESSES AND ITS FAILURES 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO," 
 "DARWINISM," ETC., ETC. 
 
 /c>^) ' 
 
 - ,'. .-^ .' ■ 
 
 NEW YORK .' ,<' ' "'', 
 ' r,, J, I 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY^' / 
 
 1898 \' 
 
A- 1 \777x 
 
 Copyright, 189R, 
 
 BY 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 
 
 61 
 
 vv/a 
 
 ^o^-^ 
 
 THE MEReHON COMPANY PRESS 
 RAHWAY, r^. J. 
 
 ./, /. 
 
1898! 
 
 And these are ours to-day 1 The boundless flood 
 
 Of infinite Research — the ocean vast 
 Of endless exploration — and our barque 
 
 Of Science builded, fairl}' launched at last, 
 Captain'd by Tliought — by Reason piloted — 
 
 Sails forth upon the venture — and to us, 
 To search the shores of Doubt — in midnight hid ; 
 
 To give, if such there be, new Worlds to light, 
 
 And that we have, with better day make bright. 
 
 —J. H. Bell. 
 
 Every young soul, ardent and high, rushing forth into life's hot 
 
 fight; 
 Every home of happy content, lit by love's own mystical light ; 
 Every worker who works till the evening, and earns before night his 
 
 wage. 
 Be his work a furrow straight drawn, or the joy of a bettered age ; 
 Every thinker who, standing aloof from the throng, finds a high 
 
 delight 
 In striking with tongue or with pen a stroke for the triumph of 
 
 right, — 
 
 All these know that life is sweet ; all these, with a consonant voice. 
 
 Read the legend of Time with a smile, and that which they read is 
 
 " Rejoice ! " 
 
 — Sir Lewis Morris. 
 
 If thou would'st make thy thought, O man, the home 
 
 Where other minds may habit, build it large. 
 
 Make its vast roof translucent to the skies. 
 
 And let the upper glory dawn thereon. 
 
 Till morn and evening, circling round, shall drop 
 
 Their jewelled plumes of sun-flame and of stars. 
 
 — Tliomaa Lake Harrii. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The present work is not in any sense a history, even 
 on the most limited scale. It may perhaps be termed 
 an appreciation of the century — of what it has done, 
 and what it has left undone. The attempt has been 
 made to give short, descriptive sketches of those great 
 material and intellectual achievements which especially 
 distinguish the nineteenth century from any and all of 
 its predecessors, and to show how fundamental is the 
 change they have effected in our life and civilization. 
 A comparative estimate of the number and importance 
 of these achievements leads to the conclusion that not 
 only is our century superior to any that have gone be- 
 fore it, but that it may be best compai-ed with the whole 
 preceding historical period. It must therefore be held 
 to constitute the beginning of a new era of human 
 progress. 
 
 But this is only one side of the shield. Along with 
 these marvellous Successes — perhaps in consequence of 
 them — there have been equally striking Failures, some 
 intellectual, but for the most part moral and social. No 
 impartial appreciation of the century can omit a refer- 
 ence to them; and it is not improbable that, to the his- 
 torian of the fviture, they will be considered to be its 
 most striking characteristic. I have therefore given 
 them due iJrominence. ISTo doubt it will be objected 
 that I have devoted far too much space to them — more 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 than half the volume. But this was inevitable, for the 
 very obvious reason that, whereas the successes are uni- 
 versally admitted and had only to be described, the fail- 
 ures are either ignored or denied, and therefore required 
 to be proved. It was thus necessary to give a tolerably 
 full summary of the evidence in every case in which an 
 allegation of failure has been made. The Vaccination 
 question has been discussed at the greatest length for 
 several reasons. It is the only surgical operation that, 
 in our country, has ever been universally enforced by 
 law. It has been recently inquired into by a Royal 
 Commission, whose Majority Report is directly opposed 
 to the real teaching of the official and national statistics 
 presented in the detailed reports. The operation is, ad- 
 mittedly, the cause of many deaths, and of a large but 
 unknown amount of permanent injury; the only really 
 trustworthy statistics on a large scale prove it to be 
 wholly without effect as a preventive of small-pox ; many 
 hundreds of persons are annually punished for refusing 
 to have their children vaccinated; and it will undoubt- 
 edly rank as the greatest and most pernicious failure of 
 the century. I claim that the evidence set forth in this 
 chapter, with the diagrams which illustrate it, demon- 
 strate this conclusion. It is no longer a question of 
 opinion, but of science; and I have the most complete 
 confidence that the result I have arrived at is a statis- 
 tical, and therefore a piathematical certaintj^ 
 
 Of even greater importance, though less special to the 
 century, is the perennial problem of wealth and poverty. 
 In dealing with this question I have adduced a body of 
 evidence showing that, accompanying our enormous in- 
 crease of wealth, there has been a corresponding increase 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 of poverty, of insanity, of suicide, and probably even of 
 crime, together with other indications of moral and 
 physical deterioration. To the facts I liave set forth I 
 earnestly call the attention of all those who have at heart 
 the progress of true civilization and the welfare of 
 humanity. 
 
 A. E. W. 
 Parkstone, Dorset, April, 1898. 
 
The old times are dead and gone and rotten ; 
 
 The old thoughts shall never more be thought ; 
 The old faiths have failed and are forgotten, 
 
 The old strifes are done, the fight is fought ; 
 And with a clang and roll, the new creation 
 Bursts forth, 'mid tears and blood and tribulation. 
 
 — Sir Lewis Morris. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Part I. — Successes. 
 
 CHAPTER PAQE 
 
 I. Modes of Travelling, 1 
 
 II. Labor-Saving Machinery, 13 
 
 III, The Conveyance op Thought, .... 17 
 
 IV. Fire and Light, 24 
 
 V. New Applications op Light — Photography, . 31 
 
 VI. New Applications op Light — Spectrum Analysis, 43 
 
 VII. Theoretical Discoveries in Physics, ... 51 
 
 VIII. Minor Applications of Physical Pkinciples, . 59 
 
 I^. The Importance of Dust — A Source of Beauty 
 
 AND Essential to Life, 69 
 
 X. A Few of the Great Problems op Chemistry, . 86 
 
 XI. Astronomy and Cosmic Theories 93 
 
 XII. Geology : The Glacial Epoch and the Antiquity 
 
 OF Man, ... 110 
 
 XIII. Evolution and Natural Selection, . . . 135 
 
 XIV. Popular Discoveries in Physiology, . . . 143 
 XV. Estimate of Achievements : The Nineteenth 
 
 AS Compared with Earlier Centuries, . . 150 
 
avll. the opposition to hypnotism and fstchical 
 
 Research, 194 
 
 XVIII. Vaccination a Delusion — Its Penal Enforce- 
 ment A Crime, . . . . .218 
 Appendix — Toe Causes op the Improvement in 
 THE Health of London toward the End op 
 THE Eighteenth and Beginning of the Nine- 
 teenth Centuries, . .... 316 
 XIX. Militarism — The Curse op Civilization, . . 325 
 
 XX The Demon of Greed, 343 
 
 XXI. This Plunder op the Earth— Conclusion, . . 369 
 Appendix — The Remedy for W.vnt in the 
 Midst op Wealth 383 
 
THE WONDEEFUL CENTURY. 
 
 PART I.— SUCCESSES. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MODES OF TRAVELLING. 
 
 Put fortli your force, my iron horse, with limbs that never tire ! 
 The best of oil shall feed your joints, and the best of coal your fire ; 
 Like a train of ghosts, the telegrapli posts go wildly trooping by. 
 While one by one the milestones run, and off behind us fly ! 
 Dash along, crash along, sixty miles an liour ! 
 
 Right through old England flee ! 
 For I am bound to see my love. 
 Far away in the North Countrie. 
 
 — Profesior Rankine. 
 
 We men of the nineteenth century have not been 
 slow to praise it. The wise and the fooKsh, the learned 
 and the unlearned, the poet and the pressman, the rich 
 and the poor, alike swell the chorus of admiration for 
 the marvellous inventions and discoveries of our own 
 age, and especially for those innumerable applications 
 of science which now form part of our daily life, and 
 which remind us every hour of our immense superiority 
 over our comparatively ignorant forefathers. 
 
 But though in this respect (and in many others) we 
 undoubtedly think very well of ourselves, yet, in the 
 opinion of the present writer, our self-admiration does 
 not rest upon an adequate appreciation of the facts. No 
 
THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 one, so far as I am aware, has yet pointed out the alto- 
 gether exceptional character of our advance in science 
 and the arts, during the century which is now so near its 
 close. In order to estimate its full importance and 
 grandeur — more especially as regards man's increased 
 power over nature, and the application of that power to 
 the needs of his life to-day, with unlimited possibilities 
 in the future — we must compare it, not with any pre- 
 ceding century, or even with the last millennium, but 
 with the whole historical period — perhaps even with the 
 whole iieriod that has elapsed since the stone age. 
 
 Looking back through the long dark vista of human 
 history, the one step in material progress that seems to 
 be really comiaarable in importance with several of the 
 steps we have just made, was, when Fire was first 
 utilized, and became the servant and the friend, instead 
 of being the master and the enemy of man. From that 
 far distant epoch even down to our day, fire, in various 
 forms and in ever-widening spheres of action, has not 
 only ministered to the necessities and the enjoyments of 
 man, but has been the greatest, the essential factor, in 
 that continuous increase of his power over nature, which 
 has undoubtedly been a chief means of the development 
 of his intellect and a necessary condition of what we 
 term civilization. Without fire there would have been 
 neither a bronze nor an iron age, and without these there 
 could have been no effective tools or weapons, with all 
 the long succession of mechanical discoveries and refine- 
 ments that depended upon them. Without fire there 
 could be no rudiment even of chemistry, and all that has 
 arisen out of it. Without fire much of the earth's sur- 
 face would be uninhabitable by man, and much of what 
 
MODES OP TRAVELLING. 
 
 is now wholesome food would be useless to him. With- 
 out fire he must always have remained ignorant of the 
 larger part of the world of matter and of its mysterious 
 forces. He might have lived in the warmer parts of the 
 earth in a savage or even in a partially civilized condi- 
 tion, but he could never have risen to the full dignity of 
 intellectual man, the interpreter and master of the forces 
 of nature. 
 
 Having thus briefly indicated our standpoint, let us 
 proceed to sketch in outline those great advances in 
 science and the arts which are the glory of our century. 
 In the course of our survey we shall find that the more 
 important of these are not mere improvements upon, or 
 developments of, anything that had been done before, 
 but that they are entirely new departures, arising out of 
 our increasing knowledge of and command over the 
 forces of the universe. Many of these advances have 
 already led to developments of the most startling kind, 
 giving us such marvellous powers, and such extensions 
 of our normal senses, as would have been incredible, and 
 almost unthinkable even to our greatest men of science, 
 a hundred years ago. AVe begin with the simplest of 
 these advances, those which have given us increased 
 facilities for locomotion. 
 
 The younger generation, which has grown up in the 
 era of railways and of ocean-going steamships, hardly 
 realize the vast change which we elders have seen, or 
 how great and fundamental that change is. Even in my 
 own boyhood the wagon for the poor, the stage coach 
 for the middle class, and the post-chaise for the wealthy, 
 were the universal means of communication, there 
 being only two short railways then in existence — the 
 
THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 Stockton and Darlington opened in 1825, and the Liver- 
 pool and Manchester line opened in 1830. The yellow 
 post-chaise, without any driving seat, but with a postilion 
 dressed like a jockey riding one of the pair of horses, 
 was among the commonest sights on our main roads; and 
 together with the hundreds of four-horse mail and stage 
 coaches, the guards carrying horns or bugles which were 
 played while passing through every town or village, gave 
 a stir and liveliness and picturesqueness to rural life 
 which is now almost forgotten. 
 
 When I first went to London (I think about 1835) 
 there was still not a mile of railroad in England, except 
 the two above-named, and none between London and 
 any of our great northern or western cities were even 
 seriously contemplated. The sites of most of our great 
 London railway termini were then on the very outskirts 
 of the suburbs; Chalk Farm was a genuine farmhouse, 
 and Primrose LI ill was siirroimded by open fields. 
 
 A few years lat.er (in 1837-38) I was living near 
 Leighton Buzzard while the London and Birmingham 
 Railway, the precursor of the present London and North- 
 Western system, was in process of construction; and 
 when the first section was opened to AVatford, I travelled 
 by it to London, third-class, in what is now an ordinary 
 goods truck, witli neither roof nor seats, nor any other 
 accommodation than is now given to coal, iron, and mis- 
 cellaneous goods. If it rained, or the wind was cold, 
 the passengers sat on the floor and protected themselves 
 as they could. Second-class carriages were then what 
 the very worst of the third-class are or were a few years 
 ago — closed in, but low and nearly dark, with plain 
 wooden seats — while the first class were exactly like the 
 
mUJJiiia UF TKAVJfiLLlJNG. 
 
 odies of three stage coaches joined together. The open 
 assenger trucks were the cause of much misery, and a 
 3W deaths from exposure, before they were somewhat 
 nproved; but even then there was evidently a dread of 
 laking them too comfortable, so a roof was put to them, 
 Iso seats, and the sides a little raised but open at the 
 )p, about equal in comfort to our present cattle trucks. 
 Lt last, after a good many years, the despised third-class 
 assengers were actually provided Avith carriages of the 
 arly second-class type; and it is only in comparatively 
 3cent times that the greater railway companies realized 
 le fact that third-class passengers were so numerous as 
 ) be more profitable than the other two combined, and 
 lat it was worth while to give them the same comfort, 
 : not the same luxury, as those who could afford to 
 •avel more expensively. 
 
 The continuous progress in speed and comfort is mat- 
 )r of common knowledge, and nothing more need be 
 lid of it here. The essential point for our consideration 
 , the fundamental and even revolutionary nature of 
 le change that has been wholly effected during the 
 resent century. In all previous ages the only modes of 
 avelling or of conveying goods for long distances were 
 Y employing either men or animals as the carriers, 
 /^herever the latter were not used all loads had to be 
 irried by men, as is still the case over a large part of 
 frica, and as was the case over almost the whole of 
 merica before its discovery by the Spaniards. 
 
 But throughout Europe and Asia the horse was do- 
 esticated in very early times, and was used for riding 
 id in drawing war chariots ; and throughout the Middle 
 ges pack-horses were in universal use for carrying 
 
THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 various kinds of goods and produce, and saddle horses 
 for riding. All journeys were then made on horseback, 
 and it was in comparatively recent times that wheeled 
 vehicles for travelling in came into general use in Eng- 
 land. The very first carriage was made for Queen 
 Elizabeth in 1568; the first that pHed for hire in London 
 were in 1625, and the first stage coaches in 1659. 
 
 But chariots dra^^Ti by horses were used, both in war 
 and peace, by all the early civilized peoples. Pharaoh 
 made Joseph ride in a chariot, and he sent wagons to 
 bring Jacob, with his children and household goods, to 
 Egypt. A little later chariots were sent by the Syrians 
 as tribute to Pharaoh. Homer describes Telemachus as 
 travelling from Pylos to Sparta in a chariot provided for 
 him by Nestor : 
 
 " The rage of thirst and hunger now suppress'd, 
 The monarch turns him to his royal guest; 
 And for the promis'd journey bids prepare 
 The smooth-haired horses, and the rapid car." 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that in the earliest historic times 
 all the various types of wheeled vehicles were used — for 
 war, for racing, for travelling, and for the conveyance of 
 merchandise. They must also have been used through- 
 out a large part of Europe, since Csesar found our Brit- 
 ish ancestors possessed of war-chariots, which they man- 
 aged with great skill, implying a long previous acquaint- 
 ance with the domesticated horse and its use in humbler 
 wheeled vehicles. 
 
 Thus, throughout all past history the modes of travel- 
 ling were essentially the same, and an ancient Greek or 
 Roman, Egyptian, or Assyrian, could travel as quickly 
 
MODES OF TRAVELLING. 
 
 nd as conveniently as coiild Englishmen down to the 
 itter part of the eighteenth century. It was mainly a 
 uestion of roads, and till the beginning of the nine- 
 3enth century our roads were for the most part far in- 
 3rior to those of the Romans. It is, therefore, not 
 nprobable that during the Roman occupation of Brit- 
 in the journey from London to York could have 
 een made actually quicker than a hundred and fifty 
 ears ago. 
 
 We see, then, that from the earliest historic, and even 
 1 prehistoric times, till the construction of our great 
 dlways in the second quarter of the present century, 
 aere had been absolutely no change in the methods of 
 uman locomotion; and the speed for long distances 
 mst have been limited to ten or twelve miles an hour 
 ven under the most favorable conditions, while gener- 
 ily it must have been very much less. But the railroad 
 ad steam-locomotive, in less than fifty years, not only 
 lised the speed to fifty or sixty miles an hour, but ren- 
 Bred it possible to carry many hundreds of passengers 
 ; once with punctuality and safety for enormous dis- 
 mces, and with hardly any exposure or fatigue. For 
 le civilized world travelling and the conveyance of 
 jods have been revolutionized, and by means whicli 
 ere probably neither anticipated nor even imagined 
 fty years before. 
 
 Dr. Erasmus Darwin, who predicted steam carriages, 
 id apparently no conception of the possibility of rail- 
 lads, the enormous cost of which would have seemed to 
 3 prohibitory. And we have by no means yet fully 
 3veloped their possibilities, since even now a railroad 
 >uld be made on which we might safely travel more 
 
THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 than a hundred miles an hour, it being merely a question 
 of expense. 
 
 In steam navigation there has been a very similar 
 course of events, with the same characteristic of a com- 
 pletely new departure, leading to unknown develop- 
 ments and possibilities. From the earliest dawn of his- 
 tory men used rowing or sailing vessels for coasting 
 trade or for crossing narrow seas. The Carthaginians 
 sailed nearly to the equator on the west coast of Airica, 
 and in the eleventh century the Northmen reached 
 North America on the coast of New England. Exactly 
 five hundred years ago Vasco de Gama sailed from Por- 
 tugal round the Cape of Good Hope to India, and in the 
 next century Columbus and his Spanish followers crossed 
 the Atlantic in its widest part to the West Indies and 
 Mexico. From that time sailing ships were gradually 
 improved, till they culminated in our magnificent 
 frigates for war purposes and the clipper ships in the 
 China and Australian trade, which were in use up to 
 the middle of the century. But during all this long 
 course of development there was no change whatever in 
 principle, and the grandest three-decker or full-rigged 
 clipper ship was but a direct growth, by means of an 
 infinity of small modifications and improvements, from 
 the rudest sailing boat of the primeval savage. 
 
 Then, at the very commencement of the present cen- 
 tury, the totally new principle of steam-propulsion be- 
 gan to be vised, at first experimentally and with many 
 failures, on rivers, canals, and lakes, till about the year 
 1815 coasting steamships of small size came into pretty 
 general use. These were rapidly improved; but it was 
 not till the year 1838 that the Great Western, of 1340 
 
MOUJfia OF TKAVELLIINU. 
 
 ons and 400 horse-power, made the passage from Bristol 
 New York in fourteen days, and thus inaugurated the 
 ystem of ocean steam-navigation, which has since devel- 
 iped to such an enormous extent. The average speed 
 hen attained, of about ten miles an hour, has now been 
 fiore than doubled, and is still increasing. But the 
 Lorse-power needed to attain this high speed has in- 
 reased in much greater proportion; and it is only the 
 Quch greater size and capacity, both for passengers and 
 foods, that render such high speeds and enormous con- 
 umption of coal profitable. Some of the smaller steel- 
 luilt war-ships — torpedo-boats and torpedo-destroyers— 
 lave considerably exceeded thirty miles an hour, and the 
 imit of speed is probably not yet reached. Many sug- 
 gested forms of vessels, such as the cigar-shaped and the 
 oUer-boats, have not been adequately tried; and there 
 ire other suggested forms by means of which greater 
 teadiness and speed may yet be obtained. 
 
 Almost as remarkable as our railroads and steamships 
 3 the new method of locomotion by means of the bicycle 
 .nd tricycle. The principle is old enough, but the per- 
 ection to which these vehicles have now attained has 
 >een rendered possible by the continuous growth of all 
 inds of delicate tools and machines required in the con- 
 truction of the infinitely varied forms of steam-engines, 
 [ynamos, and other rapidly-moving machinery. In the 
 ast century it would not have been possible to construct 
 
 modern first-class bicycle, even if any genius had in- 
 ented it, except at a cost of several hundred pounds. 
 ?he combination of strength, accuracy, and lightness 
 rould not then have been attainable. It is a very inter- 
 sting fact that three out of the four methods of rapid 
 
10 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap.i. 
 
 locomotion we now possess should have attained about 
 the same maximum speed. The racehorse, the steam- 
 ship, and the bicycle, have each of them reached thirty 
 miles an hour. The horse is, however, close upon, if it 
 has not actually attained, its utmost limits; the bicycle 
 can already beat the horse for long distances, and will 
 certainly go at higher speeds for short ones; while the 
 steamship will also go much quicker, though how much 
 no one can yet say. The greatest possibilities are with 
 the bicycle, driven by electric power or compressed air, 
 by which means, on a nearly straight and fairly level, 
 asphalt track, no doubt fifty miles an hour will soon be 
 reached. 
 
 We see, then, that during the nineteenth century 
 three distinct modes of locomotion have been originated 
 and brought to a high degree of perfection. Two of 
 them, the locomotive and the steamship, are altogether 
 different in principle from what had gone before. Up 
 to the very times of men now living, all our locomotion 
 was on the same old lines which had been used for thou- 
 sands of years. It had been improved in details, but 
 without any alteration of principle and without any very 
 great increase of efficiency. The principles on which 
 our present methods rest are new; they already far sur- 
 pass anything that could be effected by the older 
 methods ; with wonderful rapidity they have spread over 
 the whole world, and they have in many ways modified 
 the habits and even the modes of speech of all civilized 
 peoples. 
 
 This vast change in the methods of human locomotion, 
 already so ubiquitous that by the. younger generation 
 their absence rather than their presence is considered re- 
 
cHAp.i. MODES OF TRAVELLING. 11 
 
 markable, has been almost wholly effected within the 
 writer's memory, and is of itself sufficiently striking and 
 important to justify the appellation of " The Wonderful 
 Century " to that period which witnessed its rise, its 
 progress, and its maturity of development. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY. 
 
 Wonderful chair ! Wonderful horses 1 Wonderful people ! 
 Whirr ! whirr I all by wheels I Whizz ! whizz ! all by steam. 
 
 — Eotlien. 
 
 Work — work — work 
 Till the brain begins to swim ; 
 
 Work — work — work 
 Till the eyes are heavy and dim I 
 Seam and gusset and band, 
 
 Band and gusset and seam, 
 Till over the buttons I fall asleep. 
 
 And sew them on in a dream ! 
 
 — Hood. 
 
 The invention and partial development of much of 
 our modern machinery dates from the last century, and 
 our most advanced appliances for the manufacture of 
 the various textile fabrics and hardware are mostly im- 
 provements of, or developments from, the older ma- 
 chines. These, taken in connection with the great im- 
 provements in steam-engines, have multiplied many 
 times over the efficiency of human labor, but do not 
 otherwise specially interest us here. There are, how- 
 ever, a few inventions which have the character of quite 
 new departures, since not only do they greatly diminish 
 labor but they perform, by mechanical contrivances, 
 operations which had been supposed to be beyond the 
 power of machinery to execute. The more prominent 
 of these are the sewing machine, the typewriter, and the 
 
 IS 
 
tnxT.ii. LiABUK SAVllNU JHAUUIJN JliKI . 13 
 
 combined reaping, thrashing, and winnowing machine, 
 of which a brief account will be given. 
 
 The sewing machine, now so common, exercised the 
 ingenuity of mechanicians for a long period before it 
 arrived at sufficient perfection to be stiitable for general 
 use. The earlier machines were for embroidering only; 
 then, about 1790, one was made for stitching shoes and 
 other leather work, but it does not seem to have come 
 into general use. A crocheting machine was patented 
 in 1834; somewhat later one for rough basting; but it 
 was not till 1846 that the first effective lock-stitch sew- 
 ing machine was made by Elias Howe, of Cambridge, 
 Mass. Henceforth sewing machines were rapidly im- 
 proved and adapted to every variety of work; but the 
 difficulty of the problem to be solved is shown by the 
 unusually long process of gradual development, much 
 of the mechanical talent of both hemispheres being 
 occupied for nearly a century before the various ma- 
 chines so familiar to-day were perfected. There are 
 now special machines for making button-holes and for 
 sewing on buttons, for carpet-sewing, for pattern-sewing, 
 for leather work, and for the special operations required 
 in the making and repairing of shoes. Boot and shoe- 
 making by machinery, in large factories, has entirely 
 grown up since the sewing-machine was proved to be 
 adapted for almost every kind of sewing work. As a 
 result, machine-made boots and shoes are very cheap, 
 but they are usually of inferior quality to the old hand- 
 made articles; and first-class work is quite as dear as it 
 was fifty or sixty years ago, or even dearer. 
 
 The typewriter is a still later invention, and though 
 perhaps less difficult than the sewing machine, yet it 
 
14 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. ohap.h. 
 
 involves more complex motions and adjustments, so that 
 the perfection it has so quickly attained is very remarka- 
 ble. If we consider that about sixty separate types, in- 
 cluding small letters, capitals, spaces, stops, etc., have to 
 be so arranged and so connected as to be brought in any 
 order whatever to a definite position, so as to form the 
 successive letters and spaces in lines of printed charac- 
 ters and then, being properly inked, must be brought 
 into contact with the paper so as to produce a clear im- 
 pression, and that all the motions of the machinery re- 
 quired must be the result of a single pressure on a key 
 for each letter, following one another as rapidly as 
 possible, we shall have some idea of the difficulties which 
 have had to be overcome. Yet, so gi-eat are the re- 
 sources of modern mechanism, and the ingenuity of om" 
 mechanists, that the required result has been attained 
 in many different ways, so that we may now choose 
 between half a dozen forms of typewriters, no one 
 of which seems to be very markedly superior to the 
 rest. 
 
 More important, perhaps, to mankind generally, are 
 the harvesting machines, which render it possible to 
 utilize one or two fine days to secure a harvest. Reap- 
 ing machines have long been used in this country, and 
 they were followed by combined reapers and binders, 
 which left the crop ready for carting to the barn. But 
 this, when the distance was great, did not save the grain 
 from injury by wet, besides requiring much labor and a 
 careful process of stacking to preserve it. In America 
 a harvesting machine has been brought to perfection, 
 which not only reaps the grain, but threshes it, winnows 
 it, and delivers it into sacks ready for the granary or the 
 
oHAP.n. LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY. 15 
 
 market, at one operation. This machine, with two men, 
 will, in one fine day, secure the crop from ten or fifteen 
 acres, with a minimum of labor. In the great wheat- 
 fields of California and Australia, with an almost uni- 
 formly dry climate at harvest time, it is this saving of 
 labor which is the chief consideration; but in our 
 treacherous climate, where a few days' delay may mean 
 the partial or complete ruin of the crop, such machines 
 will be doubly valuable by enabling farmers to utilize to 
 the utmost every fine day after the grain is ripe. I had 
 the pleasure of seeing this wonderful machine at work 
 in California in 1887. It was propelled by sixteen small 
 mules harnessed behind, so as not to be in the way; but 
 steam power is now used. Considering what it effected, 
 it was wonderfully light, compact, and simple ; and when 
 agriculture is treated as a work of national importance, 
 such machines will render us, to a considerable extent, 
 independent of the weather, and will therefore become a 
 necessity. 
 
 The three mechanical inventions here briefly de- 
 scribed were conceived in the first half, and brought to 
 perfection in the second half of the century. They 
 each mark a new departure in human industry, inas- 
 much as they effect, by means of machinery and at one 
 operation, what had previously been performed by hu- 
 man labor directed by a hand or arm rendered skilful 
 by long practice, and sometimes requiring several dis- 
 tinct operations. They had been thus performed dur- 
 ing the whole preceding period of human history, or so 
 long as the particular kind of work had been done; so 
 that, though of less general use and of less importance, 
 they have the same distinguishing features which we 
 
1« THE WONDERFUL CENTtJRY. csap. u. 
 
 have found to characterize our new methods of loco- 
 motion. 
 
 There are, of course, innumerable other remarkable 
 mechanical inventions of the century in almost every 
 department of industry — such as the Jacquard loom for 
 pattern-weaving, revolvers and machine-guns, iron ships, 
 screw propellers, etc.; while machinery has been exten- 
 sively applied to watch-making, screw-cutting, nail-mak- 
 ing, printing, and a hundred other purposes. But none 
 of these are of very high importance in themselves, or 
 possess the special characteristics of being new and quite 
 distinct departures from what has been done before, and 
 they cannot therefore rank individually among those 
 greater discoveries which pre-eminently distinguish the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CONVEYANCE OF THOUGHT. 
 
 Speak the word and think the thought, 
 Quick 'tis as with lightning caught — 
 Over, under, lands or seas 
 To the far antipodes. 
 
 I sent a message to my dear — 
 A thousand leagues and more to Her — 
 
 The dumb sea-levels thrilled to hear, 
 And Lost Atlantis bore to Her. 
 
 —Kipling. 
 
 The history of the progress of communication between 
 persons at a distance from each other has gone through 
 three stages which are radically distinct. At first it 
 was dependent on the voice or on gestures, and a message 
 to a friend (or enemy) at a distance could only be sent 
 through a messenger, and was liable to distortion through 
 failure of memory. The heralds and ambassadors of 
 early times thus communicated orders from kings to their 
 subjects, or conveyed messages from one king to another. 
 Then came the invention of writing, and a new era of 
 communication began. Letters were capable of convey- 
 ing secret information and copious details, which could 
 not be safely intrusted to the uncertain memory of an 
 intermediary; and a single messenger could convey a 
 large number of letters to various persons on the way to 
 his ultimate destination. Henceforth the progress of 
 coramumcations was bound up with that of locomotion, 
 
 17 
 
18 THE WONDEKFUL CENTURY. chap. in. 
 
 and, as civiliza'tion advanced, arrangements were made 
 for the conveyance of letters at a comparatively small 
 cost. A Post Office for the public service was first estab- 
 lished by some Continental merchants in the fourteenth 
 century; but it was not till the time of Charles I. that 
 anything of the kind was to be found in England, and 
 then it was mainly for the purpose of keeping up a com- 
 munication between London and Edinburgh, and the 
 intervening large towns, for Government purposes. It 
 was, however, the starting-point of our existing postal 
 system, which has been gradually extended under the 
 direction of the King's Postmaster General, and has con- 
 tinued to be a Government monopoly to our day. The 
 letters were carried on horseback till 1783, when mail 
 coaches were first introduced; and these led to a great 
 improvement in our main roads, and the extension of 
 the postal service to every town and village in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 But even with good roads and mail coaches, the actual 
 time taken in the despatch of a letter to a distant place 
 was little if any less than had been possible from the 
 earliest times, by means of relays of runners on foot or 
 by swift horsemen. The improvement consisted in the 
 regularity and economy of the postal service. The in- 
 troduction of railways and steamships enabled much 
 greater speed to be secured; but the greatest and most 
 beneficial improvement in the administration of the 
 Post Office was that inaugurated by Kowland Hill in 
 1840. The rule then first introduced, of an uniform 
 charge irrespective of distance, is one of those entirely 
 new departures so many of which characterize our cen- 
 tury, and which not only produce immediate beneficial 
 
OHAP. III. THE CONVEYANCE OF THOUGHT. 19 
 
 effects, but are the starting-points of various unforeseen 
 developments. It was founded in this case on a careful 
 estimate of the various items which make up the cost of 
 the carriage and delivery of each letter, and it was shown 
 that the actual conveyance, even for the greatest dis- 
 tances, was the smallest part of the cost when the num- 
 ber of letters is large, the chief items of expense being 
 the office work — the sorting, stamping, packing, etc. — 
 and the final delivery, all of which are quite independent 
 of the distance the letter is carried. The old system, 
 therefore, of increasing the charge for postage in propor- 
 tion to distance was altogether unreasonable, because the 
 cost of conveyance was hardly perceptibly increased; 
 and if the Post Office was considered to be a public 
 service for the public benefit only, the people had a right 
 to demand that they should pay only in proportion to 
 the cost. Yet the principle was not at first, and is not 
 even now, fully carried out. For thirty years, from 
 1840 to 1871, the postage was increased equally with 
 each successive increment of weight, the half-ounce let- 
 ter being a penny, while one of two ounces was four- 
 pence. But as the chief items of expense — the office 
 work and delivery — were the same, or nearly the same 
 in both cases, the double or quadruple charge Avas en- 
 tirely opposed to the principle on which the uniform rate 
 was originally founded. Accordingly, in 1871, when 
 an ounce letter was first carried for a penny, the charge 
 for two ounces was fixed at three halfpence, while four 
 ounces was taken for twopence. This accepted and 
 common-sense principle, however, has not yet been ap- 
 plied to the charges of the Postal Union, so that a letter 
 which is a fraction over the half-ounce is charged five 
 
so THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap-iu. 
 
 pence, or double, and one over an ounce and a half ten- 
 pence, or four times that of the half-ounce letter, al- 
 though an extra halfpenny would probably cover the 
 extra cost of the service in both cases. 
 
 The same inability of the official mind to carry out an 
 admitted principle is seen also in the case of Postal 
 Orders. The cost to the Post Office of receiving and 
 paying money is exactly the same whether the amount 
 is eighteenpence or fifteen shillings, and there is neither 
 justice nor common-sense in charging three times as 
 much in the latter case. There is no risk, because the 
 money is paid in advance; and as the amounts taken in 
 and paid out for postal orders must be approximately 
 equal, it is difficult to see what justification there is for 
 making any diiference in charge. The same objection 
 applies to Money Orders ; and as there is doubtless a cer- 
 tain percentage of both which, from various causes, are 
 never presented for payment, the profit to the Post Office 
 must be greater in case of the higher amounts, which is 
 another reason why these should not be exceptionally 
 taxed. When the railways are taken over by the state, 
 to be worked for the good of the community only, the 
 principle will admit of great extension, each increment 
 of distance being charged at a lower rate, just as is each 
 increment of weight in our inland letters. 
 
 The third stage in the means of communication, when 
 by means of electric signals it was rendered independent 
 of locomotion, is that which has especially distinguished 
 the present century. The electric telegraph serves us as 
 a new sense, enabling us to communicate with friends at 
 the other side of the globe almost as rapidly and as easily 
 as if they were in different parts of the same town. Th^ 
 
CHAP. m. THE CONVEYANCE OF THOUGHT. 21 
 
 means of communication we now use daily would have 
 been wholly inconceivable to our ancestors a hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 About the middle of the last century it was perceived 
 by a few students of electricity that it afforded a means 
 of communication at a distance; but it was not till the 
 year 1837 that the efforts of many simultaneous workers 
 overcame the numerous practical difficulties, and the 
 first electric telegraph was established. Its utility was 
 so great, especially in the working of the railways then 
 being rapidly extended over the kingdom, that it soon 
 came into general use ; but hardly anyone at first thought 
 that it would ever be possible to lay wires across the 
 ocean depths to distant continents. Yet, step by step, 
 with wonderful rapidity, even this was accomplished. 
 The first submarine line was laid from Dover to Calais 
 in 1851; and only five years afterward, in 1856, a com- 
 pany was formed to lay an electric cable across the 
 Atlantic. The cable, 2500 miles long and weighing a 
 ton per mile, was successfully laid, in 1858, from Ire- 
 land to Newfoundland; but owing to the weakness of 
 the electric current, and perhaps to imperfections in the 
 cable, it soon became useless, and had to be abandoned. 
 After eight years more of invention and experiment, 
 another cable was successfully laid in 1866; and there 
 are now no less than fourteen lines across the Atlantic, 
 while all the other oceans have been electrically bridged, 
 so that messages can be sent to almost any part of the 
 globe at a speed which far surpasses the imaginary power 
 of Shakespeare's sprite Ariel, who boasted that he could 
 " put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes." 
 We are now able to receive accounts of great events al- 
 
23 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap.ui. 
 
 most while they are happening on the other side of the 
 globe; and, owing to difference of longitude, we some- 
 times can hear of an event apparently before it has hap- 
 pened. If some great official were to die at Calcutta at 
 sunset, we should receive the news soon after noon on 
 the same day. 
 
 As a result of the numerous experimental researches 
 necessitated for the continixous improvement of the elec- 
 tric telegraph, the telephone was invented, an even more 
 marvellous and unexpected discovery. By it, the hu- 
 man voice, in all its countless modifications of quality 
 and musical tone, and its most complex modulations dur- 
 ing speech, is so reproduced at a distance that a speaker 
 or singer can be distinctly heard and understood hun- 
 dreds of miles away. This is not an actual transmission 
 of the voice, as in the case of a speaking-tube, but a true 
 reproduction by means of two vibrating discs: the one 
 set in motion by the speaker, while the electric current 
 causes identical vibrations in the similar disc at the end 
 of the line, and these vibrations reproduce the exact 
 tones of the voice so as to be perfectly intelligible. At 
 first telephones could only be worked successfully for 
 short distances, but by continuous improvements the dis- 
 tance has been steadily increased, so that in America 
 there is a telephone line now in operation between New 
 York and Chicago, cities about a thousand miles apart. 
 
 Those who have read Mr. Bellamy's wonderful story, 
 " Looking Backward," will remember the concerts con- 
 tinually going on day and night, with telephonic connec- 
 tions to every house, so that everyone could listen to the 
 very best obtainable music at will. But few persons are 
 aware that a somewhat similar use of the telephone is 
 
CHAP. III. THE CONVEYANCE OF THOUGHT. 23 
 
 actually in operation at Buda Pesth in the form of a 
 telephonic newspaper. At certain fixed hours through- 
 out the day a good reader is employed to send definite 
 classes of news along the wires which are laid to sub- 
 scribers' houses and offices, so that each person is able 
 to hear the particular items he desires, without the delay 
 of its being printed and circulated in successive editions 
 of a newspaper. It is stated that the news is supplied to 
 subscribers in this way at little more than the cost of a 
 daily newspaper, and that it is a complete success. 
 
 We thus see that during the present century two dis- 
 tinct modes of communication with persons at a distance 
 have been discovered and brought into practical use, 
 both of which are perfectly new departures from the 
 methods which, with but slight modifications, had been 
 in use since that early period when picture-writing or 
 hieroglyphics were first invented. 
 
 In the facilities and possibilities of communication 
 with our fellow-men all over the world, the advance 
 made in the present century is not only immensely 
 greater than that effected during the whole preceding 
 period of human history, but is even more marvellous in 
 its results. And it is also much greater in amount than 
 the almost simultaneous advance in facilities for loco- 
 motion, great as these have been. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRE AND LIGHT. 
 
 Put out the light, and then— Put out the light ! 
 
 If I quench thee, thou flaming minister, 
 
 I can again thy former light restore, 
 
 Should I repent me : — but once put out thy light. 
 
 Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, 
 
 I know not where is that Promethean heat 
 
 That can thy light relume. 
 
 — Othello. 
 
 It seems probable that the discovery of the use of fire, 
 and of some mode of producing it at will, constituted 
 the first important advance of primitive man toward ob- 
 taining that command over nature which we term civili- 
 zation. How long ago it is since that first step was 
 taken, we have no means of determining. The palaeo- 
 lithic cave-dwellers made use of fire, and no tribes of 
 men have been found who were wholly unacquainted 
 with it. It was probably first utilized in volcanic dis- 
 tricts where sticks may often be ignited by thrusting 
 them into cavities in old lava streams. In other regions, 
 trees are often ignited when struck by lightning; and 
 when this was first observed, the agreeable warmth, the 
 ease with which the fire could be kept up by adding fresh 
 fuel, the cheerful blaze at night, and the pleasant taste 
 imparted to many kinds of food by roasting, would al- 
 most certainly lead to its careful preservation, and its 
 distribution to other families and tribes. When once 
 used, the inconvenience of losing it would be so great, 
 
CHAP. IV. FIRE AND LIGHT. S6 
 
 that any clew to its mode of production would be fol- 
 lowed up. It is said that trees are sometimes ignited by 
 the friction of dry branches which happen to touch each 
 other, when violently rubbed together during a strong 
 wind. When this was observed for the first time by 
 some thoughtful savage, and he actually found that 
 strong rubbing did make things hot, he would be en- 
 couraged to use his utmost efforts to imitate the effect 
 produced by nature. After many unsuccessful trials, he 
 would at length succeed; and the important news would 
 be rapidly communicated to adjacent tribes, and thus 
 spread over a whole continent. As a matter of fact, this 
 method of producing fire by friction is that most com- 
 mon among savages in all parts of the world; and since 
 it requires only materials that are almost everywhere at 
 hand, it descended even to some civilized peoples. It is, 
 however, a rather troublesome process, requiring a con- 
 siderable amount of skill and perseverance; hence some 
 of the lowest savages, such as the Tasmanians, are said 
 to have been without the knowledge of it, keeping their 
 fires constantly alight, or, when accidentally extin- 
 guished, obtaining it from some adjacent tribe. Per- 
 haps, however, the dampness of their forests rendered it 
 practicable only during very dry seasons. 
 
 The more convenient method of striking a light by 
 the use of flint, steel, and tinder, probably originated 
 after iron was first made, and soon became adopted by 
 all civilized people, and by many savages who possessed 
 iron; and this method continued in use from the times 
 of prehistoric man through all the ages of barbarism and 
 civilization down to the early part of this century, and 
 the process underwent hardly any improvement during 
 
36 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chas. «v. 
 
 that long period. One of tlie most vivid recollections of 
 my childhood is of seeing the cook make tinder in the 
 evening, by burning old linen rags, and in the mormng, 
 with flint and steel, obtaining the spark which, by careful 
 blowing, spread sufficiently to ignite the thin brimstone 
 match from which a candle was lit and fire secured for 
 the day. The process was, however, sometimes, a 
 tedious one, and if the tinder had accidentally got damp, 
 or if the flint were worn out, after repeated failures a 
 light had to be obtained from a neighbor. At that time 
 there were few savages in any part of the world but 
 could obtain flre as easily as the most civilized of 
 mankind. 
 
 At length, after the use of these rude methods for 
 many thousand years, a great discovery was made which 
 revolutionized the process of fire-getting. The proper- 
 ties of phosphorus were known to the alchemists, and it 
 is strange that its ready ignition by friction was not made 
 use of to obtain fire at a much earlier period. It was, 
 however, both an expensive and a dangerous material, 
 and though about a hundred years ago it began to be 
 made cheaply from bones, it was not used in the earliest 
 friction matches. These were invented in 1827, or a 
 little earlier, by Mr. John Walker, a chemist and drug- 
 gist of Stockton-on-Tees, and consisted of wood splints, 
 dipped in chlorate of potash and sulphur mixed with 
 gum, which ignited when rubbed on sandpaper. Two 
 years later the late Sir Isaac Holden invented a similar 
 match. About 1834, phosphorus began to be used with 
 the other materials to cause more easy ignition, and by 
 1840 these matches became so cheap as to come into gen- 
 eral use in place of the old flint and steel. They have 
 
CHAP. IV. PIRE AND LIGHT. 37 
 
 since spread to every part of the world, and their pro- 
 duction constitutes one of the large manufacturing in- 
 dustries of England, Sweden, and many other coun- 
 tries. 
 
 Here again we have an invention that is not a modi- 
 fication of the older mode of obtaining fire, but a new 
 departure, possessing such great advantages that it 
 rapidly led to the almost total abandonment of the old 
 methods in every civilized country, as well as in many 
 of the remotest and least civilized parts of the world. 
 For many thousands of years the means of obtaining 
 fire remained almost unchanged over the whole world, 
 till, only sixty years ago, a discovery which at the time 
 seemed of but little importance has led to a quicker and 
 easier process, which is so mdely adopted that millions 
 of persons in all civilized countries make use of it every 
 day of their lives. 
 
 Coming now to the use of fire as a light-giver, we find 
 that an even greater change has taken place in our time. 
 The first illuminants were probably torches made of resi- 
 nous woods, which will give a flame for a considerable 
 time. Then the resin exuding from many kinds of trees 
 would be collected and applied to sticks or twigs, or to 
 some fibrous materials tied up in bundles, such as are still 
 used by many savage peoples, and were used in the old 
 baronial halls. For out-door lights torches were used 
 almost down to our times, an indication of which is seen 
 in the iron torch-extinguishers at the doors of many of 
 the older "West End houses; while, before the introduc- 
 tion of gas, link-boys were as common in the streets as 
 match-sellers are now. Then came lamps, formed of 
 small clay cups, holding some melted animal fat and a 
 
28 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. iv. 
 
 fibrous wick; and, somewhat later, rusliliglits and 
 candles. Still later, vegetable oils were vised for lamps, 
 and wax candles; but the three modes of obtaining 
 illumination for domestic purposes remained entirely un- 
 changed in principle, and very little improved, through- 
 out the whole period of history down to the end of the 
 eighteenth century. The Greek and Roman lamps, 
 though in beautiful receptacles of bronze or silver, were 
 exactly the same in principle as those of the lowest sav- 
 age, and hardly better in light-giving power ; and though 
 various improvements in form were introduced, the first 
 really important advance was made by the Argand 
 burner. This introduced a current of air into the center 
 of the flame as well as outside it, and, by means of a 
 glass chimney, a regular supply of air was kept up, and 
 a steady light produced. Although the invention was 
 made at the end of the last century the lamps were not 
 sufficiently improved and cheapened to come into use till 
 about 1830; and from that time onward many other im- 
 provements were made, chiefly dependent on the use of 
 the cheap mineral oils, rendering lamps so inexpensive, 
 and producing so good a light, that they are now found 
 in the poorest cottages. 
 
 The only important improvement in candles is due to 
 the use of paraffin fats instead of tallow, and of flat 
 plaited wicks which are consumed by the flame. In my 
 boyhood, the now extinct " snuffers " were in universal 
 use, from the common rough iron article in the kitchen 
 to elaborate polished steel spring-snuffers of various 
 makes for the parlor, with pretty metal or papier-mache 
 trays for them to stand in. Candles are still very largely 
 used, being more portable and safer than most of the 
 
CHAP. IV. PIRE AND LIGHT. 29 
 
 paraffin oil lamps. Even our lighthouses used only 
 candles down to the early part of the present century. 
 
 A far more important and more radical change in our 
 modes of illumination was the introduction of gas-light- 
 ing. A few houses and factories were lighted with gas 
 at the very end of the last century, but its first applica- 
 tion to out-door or general purposes was in 1813, when 
 Westminster Bridge was illuminated by it, and so suc- 
 cessfully that its use rapidly spread to every town in the 
 kingdom, for lighting private houses as well as streets 
 and public buildings. When it was first proposed to 
 light London with gas, Sir Humphrey Davy is said to 
 have declared it to be impracticable, both on account of 
 the enormous size of the needful gasholders, and the 
 great danger of explosions. These difficulties, have, 
 however, been overcome, as was the supposed insupera- 
 ble difficulty of carrying sufficient coal in the case of 
 steamships crossing the Atlantic, the impossibilities of 
 one generation becoming the realities of the next. 
 
 Still more recent, and more completely new in prin- 
 ciple, is the electric light, which has already attained a 
 considerable extension for public and private illumina- 
 tion, while it is applicable to many purposes unattainable 
 by other kinds of light. Small incandescent lamps are 
 now used for examinations of the larynx and in den- 
 tistry, and a lamp has even been introduced into the 
 stomach by which the condition of that organ can be 
 examined. For this last purpose numerous ingenious 
 arrangements have to be made to prevent possible in- 
 jury, and by means of prisms at the bends of the tube 
 the operator can inspect the interior of the organ iinder 
 a brilliant light. Other internal organs have been ex- 
 
The WONDERPtJL CENTtTBY. cba*. w. 
 
 plored in a similar manner, and many new applications 
 in this direction will no doubt be made. In illuminat- 
 ing submarine boats and exploring the interiors of 
 sunken vessels it does what could hardly be effected by 
 any other means. 
 
 We thus find, that whereas down to the end of the last 
 century our modes of producing and utilizing light were 
 almost exactly the same as had been in use for the pre- 
 ceding two or three thousand years, in the present cen- 
 tury we have made no less than three new departures, all 
 of which are far superior to the methods of our fore- 
 fathers. These are: (1) the improvement in lamps by 
 the use of the principle of the Argand burner and chim- 
 ney; (2) lighting by coal-gas; and (3) the various modes 
 of electric lighting. The amount of advance in this one 
 department of domestic and public illumination during 
 the present century is enormous, while the electric light 
 has opened up new fields of scientific exploration. 
 
 Whether we consider the novelty of the principles in- 
 volved or the ingenuity displayed in their application, 
 we cannot estimate this advance at less than that effected 
 during the whole preceding period of human history, 
 from that very remote epoch when fire was first taken 
 into the service of mankind, down to the time of men 
 now living among us. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY. 
 
 O portrait, bright and wonderful 1 
 Wrought by the sun-god's pencil true ; 
 
 What grace of feature, glance of eye ! 
 The soul itself beams out from you. 
 
 New marvel of a marvellous age I 
 
 Apelles old, whose art 'twas said 
 Rivalled reality, than this 
 
 Had never limned a lovelier head.' 
 
 The improvements in tlie mode of production of light 
 for common use, discussed in the previous chapter, are 
 sufficiently new and remarkable to distinguish this cen- 
 tury from all the ages that preceded it, but they sink 
 into insignificance when compared with the discoveries 
 which have been made as to the nature of light itself, its 
 effects on various kinds of matter leading to the art of 
 Photography, and the complex nature of the Solar 
 Spectrum leading to Spectrum Analysis. This group of 
 investigations alone is sufficient to distinguish the 
 present century as an epoch of the most marvellous scien- 
 tific discovery. 
 
 Although Huygens put forward the wave-theory of 
 light more than two hundred years ago, it was not ac- 
 cepted, or seriously studied, till the beginning of the 
 
 'The above translation of the Pope's Latin verse on Photography 
 is by my friend, Mr. F. T. Mott, of Leicester. 
 Xxpreesa solis spicoJo O mira virtuB ingeni, 
 
 Nitens imago, qiiam bene Novumque monstrum I Imaginem 
 
 Frontia decns, vim liiminnm Natarte Apellee semulua 
 
 Refers, et orla gratiam. Non pulchriorem pingeret. 
 
 31 
 
32 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 present century, when it was revived by Thomas Young, 
 and was shown by himself, by Fresnel, and other mathe- 
 maticians, to explain all the phenomena of refraction, 
 double-refraction, polarization, diffraction, and interfer- 
 ence, some of which were inexplicable on the Newtonian 
 theory of the emission of material particles, which had 
 previously been almost universally accepted. The com- 
 plete establishment of the undulatory theory of light is 
 a fact of the highest importance, and will take a very 
 high place among the purely scientific discoveries of the 
 century. 
 
 From a more practical point of view, however, noth- 
 ing can surpass in interest and importance the discovery 
 and continuous improvement of the Photographic art, 
 which has now reached such a development that there 
 is hardly any science or any branch of intellectual study 
 that is not indebted to it. A brief sketch of its origin 
 and progress will therefore not be uninteresting. 
 
 The fact that certain salts of silver were darkened by 
 exposure to simlight was known to the alchemists in the 
 sixteenth century, and this observation forms the rudi- 
 ment from which the whole art has been developed. 
 The application of this fact to the production of pictures 
 belongs, however, wholly to our own time. In the year 
 1802, Wedgewood described a mode of copying paint- 
 ings on glass by exposure to light, Imt neither he nor Sir 
 Humphrey Davy could find any means of rendering the 
 copies permanent. This was first effected in 1814 by 
 M. Niepee of Chalons, but no important results were ob- 
 tained till 1839, when Daguerre perfected the beautiful 
 process known as the Daguerrotype. Permanent por- 
 traits were taken by him on silvered plates, and they were 
 
cHAp.y. NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT. 33 
 
 SO delicate and beautiful that probably nothing in mod- 
 ern photography can surpass them. For several years 
 they were the only portraits taken by the agency of 
 light, but they were very costly, and were therefore com- 
 pletely superseded when cheaper methods were dis- 
 covered. 
 
 About the same time a method was found for photo- 
 graphing leaves, lace, and other semi-transparent objects 
 on paper, and rendering them permanent, but this was of 
 comparatively little value. In the year 1850, the far 
 superior collodion-film on glass was perfected, and nega- 
 tives were taken in a camera-obscura, which, when 
 placed on black velvet, or when coated with a black com- 
 position, produced pictures almost as perfect and beauti- 
 ful as the daguerrotype itself, and at much less cost. 
 Soon afterward positives were printed from the trans- 
 parent negatives on suitably prepared paper, and thus 
 was initiated the process, which, with endless modifica- 
 tions and improvements, is still in use. The main ad- 
 vance has been in the increased sensitiveness of the 
 photographic plates, so that, first, moving crowds, then 
 breaking waves, running horses, and other quickly mov- 
 ing objects were taken, while now a bullet fired from a 
 rifle can be photographed in the air. 
 
 With such marvellous powers, photography has come 
 to the aid of the arts and sciences in ways which would 
 have been perfectly inconceivable to our most learned 
 men of a century ago. It furnishes the Meteorologist, 
 the Physicist, and the Biologist, with self-registering in- 
 struments of extreme delicacy, and enables them to pre- 
 serve accurate records of the most fleeting natural phe- 
 nomena. By means of successive photographs at short 
 
34 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 intervals of time, we are able to study the motions of the 
 wings of birds, and thus learn something of the mechan- 
 ism of flight; while even the instantaneous lightning- 
 flash can be depicted, and we thus learn, for the first 
 time, the exact nature of its path. 
 
 Perhaps the most marvellous of all its achievements 
 is in the field of astronomy. Every increase in the size 
 and power of the telescope has revealed to us ever more 
 and more stars in every part of the heavens; but, by the 
 aid of photography, stars are shown which no telescope 
 that has been, or that probably ever will be constructed, 
 can render visible to the human eye. For by exposing 
 the photographic plate in the focus of the object glass 
 for some hours, almost infinitely faint stars impress their 
 image, and the modern photographic star-maps show us 
 a surface densely packed with white points that seem 
 almost as countless as the sands of the seashore. Yet 
 every one of these points represents a star in its true 
 relative position to the visible stars nearest to it, and thus 
 gives at one operation an amount of accurate detail 
 which could hardly be equalled by the labor of an 
 astronomer for months or years — even if he could ren- 
 der all these stars visible, which, as we have seen, he 
 cannot do. A photographic survey of the heavens is 
 now in progress on one uniform system, which, when 
 completed, will form a standard for future astronomers, 
 and thus give to our successors some definite knowledge 
 of the structure, and, perhaps, of the extent of the stellar 
 universe. 
 
 Within the last few years the mechanical processes by 
 means of which photographs can now be reproduced 
 through the printing press have been rendered so per- 
 
cHAP.v. NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT. 35 
 
 feet that books and periodicals are illustrated with an 
 amount of accuracy and beauty that would have been 
 impossible, even twenty years ago, except at a prohib- 
 itive cost. 
 
 It has long been the dream of photographers to dis- 
 cover some mode of obtaining pictures which shall repro- 
 duce all the colors of nature without the intervention of 
 the artist's manipulation. This was seen to be exceed- 
 ingly difficult, if not impossible, because the chemical 
 action of colored light has no power to produce pigments 
 of the same color as the light itself, without which a 
 photograph in natural colors would seem to be impos- 
 sible. Nevertheless, the problem has been solved, but 
 in a totally different manner; that is, by the principle of 
 " interference," instead of by that of chemical action. 
 This principle was discovered by Newton, and is exem- 
 plified in the colors of the soap bubble, and in those of 
 mother-of-pearl and other iridescent objects. It de- 
 pends on the fact that the differently colored rays are of 
 different wave-lengths, and the waves reflected from two 
 surfaces half a wave-length apart neutralize each other 
 and leave the remainder of the light colored. If, there- 
 fore, each differently colored ray of light can be made to 
 produce a corresponding minute wave-structure in a 
 photographic film, then each part of the film will reflect 
 only light of that particular wave-length, and therefore 
 of that particular color, that produced it. This has actu- 
 ally been done by Professor Lippmann, of Paris, who 
 published his method in 1891; and in a lecture before 
 the Koyal Society in April, 1896, he fully described it 
 and exhibited many beautiful specimens.^ 
 
 'This lecture is reported in Nature, vol. liii. p. 617. 
 
36 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 The method is as follows: A sensitive film, of some of 
 the usual salts of silver in albumin or gelatin, is used, 
 but with much less silver than usual, so as to leave the 
 film quite transparent. It must also be perfectly homo- 
 geneous, since any granular structure would interfere 
 with the result. This film on glass must be placed in a 
 frame so constructed that at the back of it there is a 
 shallow cell that can be filled with mercury which is in 
 contact with the film. It is then exposed in the usual 
 way, but much longer than for an ordinary photograph, 
 so that the light-waves have time to produce the required 
 effect. The light of each particular tint, being reflected 
 by the mercury, meets the incoming light and produces 
 a set of standing waves — that is, of waves surging up 
 and down, each in a fixed plane. The result is that the 
 metallic particles in the film become assorted and strati- 
 fied by this continued wave-action, the distance apart of 
 the strata being determined by the wave-length of the 
 particular colored light — for the violet rays about eight 
 millionths of an inch; so that in a film of ordinary thick- 
 ness there would be about five hundred of these strata 
 of thinly scattered metallic particles. The quantity of 
 silver used being very small, when the film is developed 
 and fixed in the usual way the result is not a light-and- 
 shade negative, but a nearly transparent film which 
 nevertheless reflects a sufficient amount of light to pro- 
 duce a naturally colored picture. 
 
 The principle is the same for the light-waves as that 
 of the telephone for sound-waves. The voice sets up 
 vibrations in the transmitting diaphragm, which, by 
 means of an electric cun-ent, are so exactly reproduced 
 in the receiving diaphragm as to give out the same sue- 
 
NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT. 37 
 
 cession of sounds. An even more striking and, perhaps, 
 closer analogy is that of the phonograph, where the vi- 
 brations of the diaphragm are permanently registered 
 on a wax cylinder, which, at any future time, can be 
 made to set up the same vibrations of the air, and thus 
 reproduce the same succession of sounds, whether words 
 or musical notes. So, the rays of every color and tint 
 that fall upon the plate throw the deposited silver within 
 the film into minute strata which permanently reflect 
 light of the very same wave-length, and therefore of the 
 very same color as that which produced them. 
 
 The effects are said to be most beautiful, the only 
 fault being that the colors are more brilliant than in 
 nature, just as they are when viewed in the camera itself. 
 This, however, may perhaps be remedied (if it requires 
 remedying) by the use of a slightly opaque varnish. 
 The comparatively little attention that has been given 
 to this beautiful and scientifically-perfect process, is no 
 doubt due to the fact that it is rather expensive, and that 
 the pictures cannot, at present, be multiplied rapidly. 
 But for that very reason it ought to be especially attract- 
 ive to amateurs, who would have the pleasure of obtain- 
 ing exquisite pictures which will not become common- 
 place by indefinite reproduction. 
 
 The brief sketch of the rise and progress of pho- 
 tography noAv given illustrates the same fact which we 
 have already dwelt upon in the case of other discoveries. 
 This beautiful and wonderful art, which already plays 
 an important part in the daily life and enjoyment of all 
 civilized people, and which has extended the bounds of 
 human knowledge into the remotest depths of the starry 
 universe, is not an improvement of, or development 
 
38 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 from, anything that went before it, but is a totally new 
 departure. From that early period when the men of the 
 stone age rudely outlined the mammoth and the reindeer 
 on stone or ivory, the only means of representing men 
 and animals, natural scenery, or the great events of hu- 
 man history, had been through the art of the painter or 
 the sculptor. It is true that the highest Greek, or Me- 
 digeval, or Modern art, cannot be equalled by the produc- 
 tions of the photographic camera; but great artists are 
 few and far between, and the ordinary, or even the 
 talented draughtsman can give us only suggestions of 
 Avhat he sees, so modified by his peculiar mannerism as 
 often to result in a mere caricature of the truth. Should 
 some historian in Japan study the characteristics of 
 English ladies at two not remote epochs, as represented, 
 say, by Frith and by Du Maurier, he would be driven 
 to the conclusion that there had been a complete change 
 of type, due to the introduction of some foreign race, in 
 the interval between the works of these two artists. 
 From such errors as this we shall be saved by photog- 
 raphy ; and our descendants in the middle of the coming 
 century will be able to see how much, and what kind, of 
 change really does occur from age to age. 
 
 The importance of this is well seen by comparing any 
 of the early works on Ethnology, illustrated by por- 
 traits intended to represent the different " types of man- 
 kind," with recent volumes which give us copies of 
 actual photographs of the same types ; when we shall see 
 how untrue to nature are the former, due probably to 
 the artist having delineated those extreme forms, either 
 of ugliness or of beauty, that most attracted his atten- 
 tion, and to his having exaggerated even these. Thus 
 
CHAP. T. NEW APPLICATIONS OP LIGHT. 39 
 
 only can we account for the pictures in some old voyages, 
 showing an English sailor and a Patagonian as a dwarf 
 beside a giant; and for the statement by the historian of 
 Magellan's voyage, that their tallest sailor only came up 
 to the waist of the first man they met. It is now known 
 that the average height of Patagonian men is about five 
 feet ten inches, or five feet eleven inches, and none have 
 been found to exceed six feet four inches. Photography 
 would have saved us from such an error as this. 
 
 There will always be work for good artists, especially 
 in the domain of color and of historical design; but the 
 humblest photographer is now able to preserve for us, 
 and for future generations, minutely accurate records of 
 scenes in distant lands, of the ruins of ancient temples 
 which are sometimes the only record of vanished races, 
 and of animals or plants that are rapidly disappearing 
 through the agency of man. And, what is still more im- 
 portant, they can preserve for us the forms and faces 
 of the many lower races which are slowly but surely 
 dying out before the rude incursions of our imperfect 
 civilization. 
 
 That such a new and important art as photography 
 should have had its birth, and have come to maturity, so 
 closely coincident with the other great discoveries of the 
 century already alluded to, is surely a very marvellous 
 fact, and one which will seem more extraordinary to the 
 future historian than it does to ourselves, who have wit- 
 nessed the whole process of its growth and development. 
 
 The most recent of all the discoveries in connection 
 with light and photography, and one which extends our 
 powers of vision in a direction and to an extent the limits 
 of which cannot yet be guessed at, is that peculiar forra 
 
40 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 of radiation termed the X, or Rontgen Rays, from Pro- 
 fessor Rontgen of Wiirzburg, who was the first to in- 
 vestigate their properties and make practical applications 
 of them. These rays are produced by a special form of 
 electrical current sent through a vacuum tube, in or 
 around which is some fluorescent substance, which under 
 the action of the current become intensely luminous. But 
 this luminosity has totally different properties from ordi- 
 nary light, inasmuch as the substances which are opaque 
 or transparent to it are not the same as those to which we 
 usually apply the terms, but often the very contrary. 
 Paper, for instance, is so transparent that the rays will 
 pass through a book of a thousand pages, or through 
 two packs of cards, both of which would be absolutely 
 opaque to the most brilliant ordinary light. Alumin- 
 ium, tin, and glass of the same thickness are all trans- 
 parent, but they keep out a portion of the rays; whereas 
 platinum and lead are quite opaque. To these rayg 
 aluminium is two hundred times as transparent as plati- 
 num. Wood, carbon, leather, and slate are much more 
 transparent to the X-Rays than is glass; some kinds of 
 glass being almost opaque, though quite transparent to 
 ordinary light. Flesh and skin are transparent in 
 moderate thicknesses, while bone is opaque. Hence, if 
 the rays are passed through the hand the bones cast a 
 shadow, though an invisible one; and as, most fortu- 
 nately, the rays act upon photographic plates almost like 
 ordinary light, hands or other parts of the body can be 
 photographed by their shadows, and will show the bones 
 by a much darker tint. Hence their use in surgery, to 
 detect the exact position of bullets or other objects em- 
 bedded in the flesh or bone. A needle which pene- 
 
oBAp.v. NEW APPLICATIONS OP LIGHT. 41 
 
 trated the knee joint and then broke off, leaving a por- 
 tion embedded which set up inflammation, and might 
 have necessitated the loss of the limb, was shown so accu- 
 rately that a surgeon cut down to it and got it out with- 
 out difficulty. 
 
 An exceptional property of these rays is that they 
 cannot be either refracted or reflected as can ordinary 
 light and heat. Hence it is only the shadow that can be 
 photographed. And another curious result of this is 
 that they can pass through a powder as easily as through 
 a solid; whereas ordinary light cannot pass through 
 powdered glass or ice, owing to the innumerable reflec- 
 tions and refractions which soon absorb all the rays ex- 
 cept those reflected from a very thin surface layer. 
 Proportionate thicknesses of aluminium or zinc, whether 
 in the solid plate or in powder, are equally transparent to 
 these singular rays. 
 
 So much is already popularly known on this subject 
 that it is not necessary to go into further details here. 
 But this new form of radiant energy opens up so many 
 possibilities, both as to its own nature and as to the 
 illimitable field of research into the properties and 
 powers of the mysterious ether, that it forms a fitting and 
 dramatic climax to the scientific discoveries of the 
 century. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT SPECTKUM ANALYSIS. 
 
 Far beyond Orion bright 
 
 Cloud on cloud the star-haze lies ; 
 Million years bear down the light 
 
 Earthward from those ghost-like eyes. 
 
 —F. T. Palgrave. 
 
 Hushed be all earthly rhymes ! 
 
 List to those spheral chimes 
 That echo down the singing vaults of night. 
 
 The quivering impulse runs 
 
 From the exultant suns, 
 Circling in endless harmonies of light. 
 
 —F. T. Mott. 
 
 Among the numerous scientific discoveries of our cen- 
 tury we must give a very high, perhaps even the highest, 
 place to Spectrum Analysis. Not only because it has 
 completely solved the problem of the true nature and 
 cause of the various spectra produced by different kinds 
 of light, but because it has given us a perfectly new 
 engine of research, by which we are enabled to penetrate 
 into the remotest depths of gjDace, and learn something of 
 the constitution and the motions of the constituent 
 bodies of the stellar universe. Through its means we 
 have acquired what are really the equivalents of new 
 senses, which give us knowledge that before seemed ab- 
 solutely and forever unattainable by man. 
 
 The solar spectrum is that colored band produced by 
 allowing a sunbeam to pass through a prism, and a por- 
 tion of it is given by the dewdrop or the crystal when 
 
 43 
 
oHAp.vi. NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT. 43 
 
 the sun shines upon them; while the complete band i3 
 produced by the numerous raindrops, the colored rays 
 from which form the rainbow. Newton examined the 
 colors of the spectrum very carefully, and explained 
 them on the theory that light of different colors has dif- 
 ferent refrangibilities — or, as we now say, different wave- 
 lengths. He also showed that a similar set of colors can 
 be produced by the interference of rays when reflected 
 from the two surfaces of very thin plates, as in the case 
 of what are termed Newton's rings and in the iridescent 
 colors of thin films of oil on water, of soap bubbles, and 
 many other substances. 
 
 These color-phenomena, although very interesting in 
 themselves, and giving us more correct ideas of the 
 nature of color in the objects around us, did not lead to 
 anything further. But in 1802, the celebrated chemist. 
 Dr. WoUaston, made the remarkable discovery that the 
 solar-spectrum, when closely examined, is crossed by 
 very numerous black lines of various thicknesses, and at 
 irregular distances from each other. Later, in 1817, 
 these lines were carefully measured and mapped by 
 Fraunhofer; but their meaning remained an unsolved 
 problem till about the year 1860, when the German 
 physicist, Kirchhoff , discovered the secret, and opened up 
 to chemists and astronomers a new engine of research 
 whose powers are probably not jet exhausted. 
 
 It was already known that the various chemical ele- 
 ments, when heated to incandescence, produce spectra 
 consisting of a group of colored bands, and it had been 
 noticed that some of these bands, as the yellow band of 
 Sodium, corresponded in position with certain black 
 lines in the solar spectrum. Xirchhoff's discovery con- 
 
44 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. vi. 
 
 sisted in showing that, when the light from an incandes- 
 cent body passes through the same substance in a state 
 of vapor, much of it is absorbed, and the colored bands 
 become replaced by black lines. The black lines in the 
 solar spectrum are due, on this theory, to the light from 
 the incandescent body of the sun being partially ab- 
 sorbed in passing through the vapors which surround it. 
 This theory led to a careful examination of the spectra 
 of all the known elements, and on comparing them with 
 the solar spectrum it was found that in many cases the 
 colored bands of the elements corresponded exactly in 
 position with certain groups of black lines in the solar 
 spectrum. Thus hydrogen, sodium, iron, magnesium, 
 copper, zinc, calcium, and many other elements have 
 been proved to exist in the sun. Some outstanding 
 solar lines, which did not correspond to any known ter- 
 restrial element, were supposed to indicate an element 
 peculiar to the sun, which was therefore named Helium. 
 Quite recently this element has been discovered in a rare 
 mineral, and its colored spectrum is found to correspond 
 exactly to the dark lines in the solar spectrum on which 
 it was founded, thus adding a final proof of the correct- 
 ness of the theory, and affording a striking example of 
 its value as an instrument of research. 
 
 The immediate effect of the application of the spectro- 
 scope to the stars was very striking. The supposition 
 that they were suns became a certainty, since they gave 
 spectra similar in character and often very closely re- 
 sembling in detail that of our sun. Aldebaran is one 
 of the most sun-like stars, being yellow in color and pos- 
 sessing lines which indicate most of the elements found 
 in the sun. White stars, such as Sirius and Vega, show 
 
CHAP. VI. NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT. 45 
 
 hydrogen lines only; and these are supposed to be hotter 
 than our sun, and in an earlier stage of development, 
 while red stars are supposed to be cooling. Other ex- 
 planations of these facts have, however, been suggested. 
 Much information has also been obtained as to the 
 nature of the nebulae. Sir William Herschel supposed 
 that they were all really star-clusters, but so enormously 
 remote that even the most powerful telescopes could not 
 render visible the stars composing them. Later observa- 
 tions have shown that many of them do consist of stars, 
 or star-dust, as it has been called ; and this seemed to sup- 
 port the theory that all were so composed, including the 
 milky way. A study of the distribution of stars and 
 nebulae by Proctor and others led, however, to the con- 
 clusion that they were often really connected, and that 
 nebulae were not, on the average, more distant than stars ; 
 and this view has been confirmed by the spectroscope, 
 which has shown them often to consist of glowing gas; 
 and this is especially the characteristic of all those situ- 
 ated in or near the milky way. The first great result of 
 spectrum-analysis has thus been to demonstrate the real 
 nature of many stars and nebulae, to determine some of 
 the elements of which they arc formed, and to give us 
 some indications of the changes they have undergone, 
 and thus help us toward a general theory of the develop- 
 ment of the stellar universe. 
 
 Marvellous as is this extension of our knowledge of 
 objects so distant that our largest telescopes are power- 
 less to show them as more than points of light, it is only 
 a part, perhaps only a small part, of what the spectro- 
 Bcope has already done, or may yet do, for astronomy. 
 By a most refined series of observations it has enabled us 
 
46 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap.vi. 
 
 to detect and measure certain motions of the stars whicli 
 seemed to be wholly beyond our grasp, and also to 
 demonstrate the existence of celestial bodies which could 
 be detected in no other way. 
 
 In order to understand how this is possible we have 
 to make use of the wave-theory of light ; and the analogy 
 of other wave-motions will enable us better to grasp the 
 principle on which these calculations depend. If on a 
 nearly calm day we count the waves that pass each min- 
 ute by an anchored steamboat, and then travel in the 
 direction the waves come from, we shall find that a larger 
 number pass us in the same time. Again, if we are 
 standing near a railway, and an engine comes toward us 
 whistling, we shall notic-e that it changes its tone as it 
 passes us ; and as it recedes the sound will be very differ- 
 ent, although the engine is at the same distance from us 
 as when it was approaching. Yet the sound does not 
 change to the ear of the engine-driver, the cause of the 
 change being that the sound-waves reach us in quicker 
 succession as the source of the waves is approaching us 
 than when it is retreating from us. Now just as the 
 pitch of a note depends upon the rapidity with which the 
 air-vibrations reach our ear, so does the color of a par- 
 ticular part of the spectrum depend upon the rapidity 
 with which the ethereal waves which produce color reach 
 our eyes ; and as this rapidity is greater when the source 
 of the light is approaching than when it is receding from 
 us, a slight shifting of the position of the dark lines will 
 occur, as compared with their position in the spectrum of 
 the sun or of any stationary source of light, if there is 
 any motion sufficient in amount to produce a perceptible 
 shift. On experimenting with a powerful spectroscope 
 
CHAP. VI. NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT. 47 
 
 constructed for the purpose, Sir William Huggins, in 
 1868, found that such a change did occur in the case of 
 many stars, and that their rate of motion toward us or 
 away from us — termed the radial motion — could be cal- 
 culated. As the actual distance of some of these stars 
 has been measured, and their change of position annually 
 (their proper motion) determined, the additional factor 
 of the amount of motion in the direction of our line of 
 sight completes the data required to fix their true line 
 of motion among the other stars. 
 
 This method of research has now been applied to 
 many double stars with great success, observations of 
 their spectra showing that in some cases they move one 
 toward and one away from us, as they must do if they 
 are revolving around their common centre of gravity in 
 an ellipse whose plane lies approximately in our direc- 
 tion. It has also brought to light the interesting fact 
 that some stars which appear singly in the most power- 
 ful telescopes are really double, since their spectra show 
 a shifting of spectrum lines, which after a considerable 
 time changes to an opposite direction, and by the period 
 occupied in the complete change of direction the time of 
 rotation of the component stars can be determined, 
 although one of the components has never been seen. 
 By this means the variable star Algol has been proved to 
 have a dark companion which partially eclipses it every 
 69 hours; and both Sirus and Procyon have been shown 
 to have dark or less visible companions, that of Sirius 
 being really just visible in the very best telescopes. The 
 unusual motions of Sirius have been long known, and 
 were supposed to be due to the presence of a companion, 
 which has now been shown to be the true explanation. 
 
48 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap.vi. 
 
 The accuracy of this method under favorable condi- 
 tions is very great, as has been proved by those cases in 
 which we have independent means of calculating the 
 real motion. The motion of Venus toward or away 
 from us can be calculated with great accuracy for any 
 period, being a resultant of the combined motions of the 
 planet and of our earth in their respective orbits. The 
 radial motions of Venus were determined at the Lick 
 Observatory in August and September, 1890, by spectro- 
 scopic observations, and also by calculation, to be as 
 follows : 
 
 
 
 BY 
 
 OBSERVATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 CALCULATION. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 16th. 
 
 —7.3) 
 
 Llli^ 
 
 les 
 
 per 
 
 second. 
 
 — 8.1 miles 
 
 per second. 
 
 •• 
 
 22(1. 
 
 -8.9 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 —8.2 
 
 
 " 
 
 •• 
 
 30th. 
 
 —7.3 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 
 -8.3 
 
 
 " 
 
 Sept. 
 
 3d. 
 4th. 
 
 —8.3 
 —8.2 
 
 
 
 ,. 
 
 
 —8.3 
 —8.3 
 
 
 <t 
 
 showing that the maximum error was only one mile per 
 second, while the mean error was about a quarter of a 
 mile. Owing to the greater difficulty in observing the 
 spectra of stars, the accuracy in their case is probably 
 not quite so great. This has been tested by observations 
 of the same star at times when the earth's motion in its 
 orbit is toward or away from the star, whose apparent 
 radial velocity is, therefore, increased or diminished by 
 a known amount. Observations of this kind were made 
 by Dr. Vogel, Director of the Astrophysical Observa- 
 tory at Potsdam, showing, in the case of three stars, of 
 which ten observations were taken, a mean error of about 
 two miles per second. 
 
 The same observer, from his study of the spectra of 
 the variable star Algol, has been able to determine that 
 
CHAP. VI. NEW APPLICATIONS OF LIGHT. 49 
 
 both the visible star and its dark companion are some- 
 what larger than our sun, though of less density; that 
 their centers are 3,230,000 miles apart, and that they 
 move in their orbits at rates of 55 and 26 miles 
 per second respectively; and this information, it 
 must be remembered, has been gained as to objects 
 the light of which takes about forty-seven years to 
 reach us! 
 
 So striking are these results, and so rapid has been the 
 increase in the delicacy and trustworthiness of the obser- 
 vations, that the President of the Royal Astronomical 
 Society, in an address delivered in 1893, contemplated 
 the possibility that, by still further refinements in the 
 application of the spectroscope, the most accvirate meas- 
 ures of the rate of motion of our earth in its orbit, and, 
 therefore, of the distance of the sun, might be de- 
 duced from observations of stars which are them- 
 selves so remote as to be beyond our powers of 
 measurement. 
 
 So late as the year 1842 the French mathematician 
 and philosopher, Comte, declared that all study of the 
 fixed stars was waste of time, because their distance was 
 so great that we could never learn anything about them 
 — a striking illustration of the complete novelty, no less 
 than of the wonderful possibilities of this marvellous 
 engine of research. Not only is it a wholly new depar- 
 ture from anything known or even imagined before, but 
 it is able to give us a large and varied amount o£ knowl- 
 edge of that portion of the visible universe which has 
 hitherto been the least known and which seemed to be 
 the most hopelessly unapproachable. On every ground, 
 therefore, we must place the discovery and applications 
 
60 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. vi. 
 
 of Spectrum Analysis as deserving of the highest place 
 among the numerous great scientific achievements of the 
 nineteenth century.^ 
 
 ' An admirable popular account of the application of the spectro 
 scope to the heavens will be found in an article on ' ' The New 
 Astronomy," in the Nineteenth Century of June, 1897. It is written 
 by Sir William Huggins, the greater part of whose life has been 
 devoted to this branch of the science, in which he was one of the 
 earliest and most successful observers and discoverers. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THEORETICAL DISCOVERIES IN PHYSICS. 
 
 Has matter motion 1 Then each atom, 
 Asserting its perpetual right to dance. 
 Would make a universe of dust ! 
 
 For the world was built in order, 
 And the atoms march in tune. 
 
 —Emerson. 
 
 The theoretical discoveries in the domain of physics 
 (besides those ah-eady referred to) have been very nu- 
 merous, but only a few of them have enough generality 
 or have become sufficiently popular to require notice in 
 the present sketch. Two of these discoveries, however, 
 stand above the general level as important contributions 
 to our knowledge of the material universe. These are 
 (1) the determination of the mechanical equivalent of 
 heat, leading to the general theory of the conservation of 
 energy, and (2) the molecular theory of gases. 
 
 Down to the beginning of this century heat was gen- 
 erally considered to be a form of matter, termed caloric- 
 or phlogiston. The presence of phlogiston was sup- 
 posed to render substances combustible, but when the 
 chemical theory of combustion was discovered by Lavoi- 
 sier, phlogiston, as the cause of combustion, disappeared, 
 although caloric, as the material basis of heat, still held 
 its ground. Close to the end of the last century Count 
 Rumford showed that in boring a brass cannon the heat 
 developed in 2| hours was sufficient to raise 26^ lbs. of 
 
52 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 water from the freezing to the boiling point. But, dur- 
 ing the operation, the metal had lost no weight or under- 
 gone any other change ; and as the production of heat by 
 this process appeared to be unlimited, he concluded that 
 heat could not be matter, but merely a kind of motion set 
 lip in the particles of matter by the force exerted. 
 Bacon and Locke had expressed similar ideas long be- 
 fore; and, later. Sir Humphrey Davy showed that by 
 rubbing together two pieces of ice at a temperature be- 
 low the freezing point sufficient heat was produced to 
 partially melt them; while other observers found that to 
 shake water in a bottle raised its temperature, and that 
 percussion or compression, as had been long known, pro- 
 duced a considerable amount of heat. These various 
 facts led to the conclusion that there was a mechanical 
 equivalent of heat — that is, that a certain amount of 
 force exerted or work done would produce a correspond- 
 ing amount of heat ; and Joule was the first to determine 
 this accurately by a number of ingenious experiments. 
 The result was found to be that a pound of water can be 
 raised 1° C. by an amount of work equal to that required 
 to raise one pound to the height of 1392 feet, or 1392 
 lbs. one foot. Various experiments with different ma- 
 terials were found always to lead to the same result, and 
 thus the final blow was given to the material theory of 
 heat, which was thenceforth held to be a mode of motion 
 of the molecules of bodies. 
 
 These conclusions led to the more general law of the 
 conservation of energy, which implies that in any limited 
 system of bodies, whether a steam-engine or the solar 
 system, no change can occur in the total amount of the 
 energy it contains unless fresh energy comes to it froip 
 
CHAP. VII. THEORETICAL DISCOVERIES IN PHYSICS. 53 
 
 without, or is lost by transmission to bodies outside it. 
 But as, in the case of the sun, some heat is certainly lost 
 by radiation into space unless an equal amount comes ia 
 from the stellar universe, the system must be cooling, 
 and in sufficient time would lose all its heat, and there- 
 fore much of its energy. The chief use of the principle 
 is to teach us what becomes of force expended without 
 any apparent result, as when a ball falls to the ground 
 and comes to rest. We now know that the energy of 
 the falling ball is converted into heat, which, if it could 
 be all preserved and utilized, would again raise the ball 
 to the height from which it fell. It also enables us to 
 trace most of the energy around us, whether of wind, or 
 water, or of living animals, to the heat and light of the 
 sun. Wind is caused by inequalities of the sun's heat 
 on the earth; all water power is due to evaporation by 
 the sun's heat, which thus transfers the water from the 
 ocean surface to the mountains, producing rivers; solar 
 heat alone gives power to plants to absorb carbonic acid 
 and build up their tissues, and the energy thus locked up 
 is again liberated during the muscular action of the ani- 
 mals which have fed directly or indirectly on the plants. 
 This great principle enables us to realize the absolute 
 interdependence of all the forces of nature. It teaches 
 us that there is no origination of force upon the earth, but 
 that all energy either now comes to us from the sun or 
 was originated in the sun before our earth separated from 
 it; and we are thus led to the conclusion, that all work, 
 all motion, every manifestation of power we see around 
 us, are alike the effects of heat or of other radiant forces 
 allied to it. This conclusion we shall find is still further 
 enforced by the next great discovery we have to notice. 
 
54 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 The molecular theory of gases. 
 
 , The very remarkable properties of gases, their ap- 
 parently unlimited elasticity and indefinite powers of 
 expansion, were very difficult to explain on any theory 
 of their molecules being subject to such attractive and 
 repulsive forces as seem to exist in other states of matter. 
 A consideration of these properties, together with the 
 poAver of diffusion, by which gases of very different den- 
 sities form a perfect mixture when in contact, and the 
 iact that by the application of heat almost all liquids and 
 many solids can be changed into gases, led to the con- 
 ception that they owed their peculiar properties to their 
 molecules being in a state of intensely rapid motion in 
 all directions. On this theory the molecules are very 
 far apart in proportion to their size, and are continually 
 coming in contact with each other. Owing to their per- 
 fect elasticity, they rebound without loss of motion or 
 energy, and their continual impact against the sides of 
 the vessel containing them is what gives to gases their 
 great expansibility. From a study of these various 
 properties it has been calculated that, at ordinary tem- 
 peratures, there are some hundreds of trillions of mole- 
 cules in a cubic inch of gas, and that these collide with 
 each other eight thousand millions of times in a second. 
 The average length of the path between two collisions 
 of a molecule is less than the two hundred thousandth of 
 an inch; yet this small length is supposed to be at 
 least a hundred times as great as the diameter of each 
 molecule. 
 
 From the fact that all gases expand with heat and 
 contract with cold, it is concluded that the ether-vibra- 
 
CHAP. yii. THEORETICAL DISCOVERIES IN PHYSICS. 56 
 
 tions we term heat are the cause of the rapid motions of 
 the gaseous molecules, and that if heat was entirely ab- 
 sent the motion would cease, and ordinary cohesive 
 attraction coming into play, the molecules would fall 
 together and form a liquid or a solid. As a matter of 
 fact, by intense cold, combined with pressure, all gases 
 can be liquefied or solidified ; and as, on the other hand, 
 all the solid elements can be liquefied or vaporized by 
 the intense heat of the electric furnace, we conclude that 
 all matter when entirely deprived of heat is solid, and 
 with sufiicient heat becomes gaseous. 
 
 As might be expected from these varied phenomena, 
 it has been found that there is no such sharp line of dis- 
 tinction between the various states of matter as is popu- 
 larly supposed; some of the properties which are charac- 
 teristic of matter in one state being present in a less 
 degree in other states. Viscous bodies, for example, 
 often present phenomena characteristic of both solids 
 and fluids. Sealing-wax, pitch, and ice are all brittle at 
 low temperatures, resembling in this respect such solids 
 as glass and stone; but they are at the very same time 
 fluid, if time enough is allowed to exhibit the phe- 
 nomenon. This is seen in the motion of glaciers, Avhich 
 move in every respect like true fluids, even to the middle 
 of the stream flowing quicker than the sides and the top 
 than the bottom. Eddies and whirls occur in glaciers 
 as in rivers, and also upward and downward motion, so 
 that rocks torn off the glacier floor may be carried up- 
 ward and deposited on surfaces hundreds of feet above 
 their place of origin. These properties can be shown 
 to exist by experiment even on a small scale. A slab of 
 ice, supported on its two ends, will become gradually 
 
56 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 curved, and tlie curvature may be increased to any de- 
 sired extent if force is applied for a sufficient time. 
 Models of glaciers in cobbler's wax, wliicb is brittle at 
 ordinary temperatures, exhibit all the phenomena of true 
 glacier-motion, and serve to demonstrate the upward 
 motions above refeiTed to, which have been so often de- 
 nied. Most metals exhibit similar phenomena under 
 suitable conditions, and lead can be made actually to flow 
 out of a hole under pressure. 
 
 One of the most characteristic properties of gases and 
 liquids is that of readily mixing together when placed 
 in contact. But it has recently been shown that solids 
 also mix, though very much more slowly. If a cube of 
 lead is placed upon one of gold, the surfaces of contact 
 being very smooth and true, and be left without any 
 pressure but their own weight, and at ordinary tempera- 
 tures, for about a month, a minute quantity of gold will 
 be found to have permeated through the lead, and can be 
 detected in any part of it. Metals may thus be said to 
 flow into each other. 
 
 In order to produce chemical changes in bodies, it is 
 usually necessary that one at least be a liquid or be in a 
 state of solution, and the combinations that occur lead to 
 the production of bodies having quite different proper- 
 ties from either of their components. Similar results 
 occur when metals are mixed together, forming alloys. 
 Thus a mixture in certain proportions of lead, tin, bis- 
 muth, and cadmium produces an alloy which melts in 
 boiling water, while the component metals only melt at 
 double that temperature or more. Again, the strength 
 of gold is doubled by the addition of one five-hundredth 
 part of the rare metal zirconium, indicating that the 
 
CHAP. VII. THEORETICAL DISCOVERIES IN PHYSICS. 57 
 
 alloy must have a jiew arrangement of the molecules. 
 But the interesting point is that alloys can be produced 
 without melting the metals, for mere pressure often pro- 
 duces an alloy at the surfaces of contact; while in other 
 cases, if fine filings of the component metals are thor- 
 oughly mixed together and then subjected to continued 
 pressure, true alloys are produced. 
 
 Another interesting fact is tbat metals, and probably 
 all solids, evaporate at ordinary temperatures. It has 
 long been known that ice evaporates very rapidly, and 
 now it is found that metals do the same, and the evapora- 
 tion can be detected at temperatures far below their 
 melting points. All these curious phenomena give us 
 new ideas as to the constitution of matter, and lead us to 
 the conclusion that the extreme mobility of the molecules 
 of gases has its analogue in liquids and even in solids. 
 The flow of metals, their diffusion into other metals, and 
 their evaporation, lead to the conclusion that a propor- 
 tion of their molecules must possess considerable mo- 
 bility, and when these reach the surface they are enabled 
 to escape either into other bodies in contact with them or 
 into the atmosphere. Tliis proportion of rapidly mov- 
 ing molecules gives to solids some of the characteristics 
 of liquids and of gases. 
 
 Before leaving this part of our subject we must refer 
 to a most interesting and suggestive discovery which 
 throws still further light on the constitution of matter, 
 and on the forces which give to matter many of the prop- 
 erties without which neither vegetable nor animal life 
 would be possible. It has been found that all gases ex- 
 pand or contract equal amounts for every degree of heat, 
 the amount being ^y of their volume for each degree 
 
58 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 Centigrade. Hence, beginning at zero, if a gas could bo 
 cooled continuously down to — 273 C, or — 461 Fahr., it 
 would not only be reduced to a solid, but would cease to 
 have the power of further contraction. Hence this 
 point is termed the absolute zero of temperature, and 
 Lord Kelvin has arrived at the same result by quite dif- 
 ferent means. With the total absence of heat it is be- 
 lieved that all chemical action would cease, so that the 
 imiverse would consist wholly of solid and chemically 
 inert matter. Heat, therefore, seems to be the source of 
 all change in matter, and the essential condition of all 
 life; while the other vibrations of the ether, which we 
 know as light and electricity, may be also essential. 
 Ether, therefore, appears to be the active, matter the 
 passive agent in the constitution of the universe ; and the 
 recognition of the existence of the ether, together with 
 the considerable amount of knowledge we have acquired 
 of its modes of action, must be held to constitute one of 
 the most important intellectual triumphs of the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MINOR APPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 Yes, thou sbalt mark, with magic art profound, 
 The speed of light, the circling march of sound, 
 
 — Campbell. 
 
 O matchless Age ! that even the passing tone 
 Of epoch-making speech, or lover's sigh, 
 Recordest for the wonder of all time ! 
 
 —F. T. Mott. 
 
 Among the very numerous discoveries depending upon 
 physical principles, or on the application of physical 
 laws, a few of the more generally interesting may be 
 here noticed. 
 
 The Radiometer, to be seen in almost every optician's 
 window, was invented by Sir "William Crookes in 1873, 
 and consists of an exceedingly delicate windmill, formed 
 of four very slender arms supporting thin metal or pith 
 discs, one side of which is blackened, the whole turning 
 on a fine central point, so as to revolve with hardly any 
 friction. The little machine is enclosed in a glass bulb 
 from which nearly all the air has been extracted; and 
 when exposed to the sun, or even to diffused daylight, 
 the discs revolve with considerable speed. At first this 
 motion was supposed to be caused by the direct impact 
 of the rays of light, the almost complete vacuum only 
 serving to diminish friction; but the explanation now 
 generally adopted is that the black surfaces of the vanes, 
 absorbing heat, become slightly warmer than the white 
 
 G9 
 
60 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. ohap. viit. 
 
 surfaces, and this greater warmth is communicated to the 
 air-moleeules, and causes them to rebound with greater 
 rapidity from the dark surfaces, and back again from the 
 glass of the vessel, and the reaction, being all in one 
 direction, causes the arms to revolve. The near ap- 
 proach to a vacuum is necessary, both to diminish resist- 
 ance, and by greatly reducing the number of molecules, 
 in the vessel, to allow the very small differential action 
 to produce a sensible effect. Sir William Crookes has 
 found that there is a degree of rarefaction where the 
 action is at a maximum, and that when a nearer approach 
 to a perfect vacuum is attained the motion rapidly di- 
 minishes. A proof is thus given of the correctness of 
 the explanation; and the instrument may, therefore, he 
 considered to afford us an experimental illustration of 
 the molecular theory of gases. 
 
 The velocity of light, as is well known, was first deter- 
 mined by irregularities in the time of the eclipses of 
 Jupiter's satellites, which were found to occur earlier or 
 later than the calculated times, according as we were 
 near to, or far from, the planet. It was thus found that 
 it I'equired eight minutes for light to travel from the sun 
 to the earth, a distance of a little* more than ninety mil- 
 lions of miles; so that light travels about 196,000 miles 
 in a single second of time. It would seem at first sight 
 impossible to measure the time taken by light in travel- 
 ling a mile, yet means have been discovered to do this, 
 and even to measure the time taken for light to traverse 
 a few feet from one side of a room to the other. Yet 
 more, this method of measuring the ^-elocity of light has, 
 by Rurcesslve refinements, become so accurate that it is 
 now considered to be the most satisfactory method of 
 
OBaP. Vllt. 
 
 PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 61 
 
 determining the mean distance of the sun from the 
 earth, a distance which serves as the unit of measure- 
 ment for the solar system and the whole stellar universe. 
 A brief account of how this is effected will now be given. 
 
 Eye of Obserw 
 
 Fizeau, a French physicist, made the first attempt at 
 measuring the velocity of light in 1849; and later, in 
 1862, in conjunction with Foucault, a more accurate 
 determination was made by means of an apparatus of 
 which the main features are given in the accompanying 
 diagram. A ray of sunlight is made to enter a darkened 
 room by a narrow slit, and falls on a mirror at the 
 further side of the room, which can be made to revolve 
 with great rapidity. From this it is reflected to a con- 
 cave mirror having its centre of curvature at the revolv- 
 ing mirror. The diagonal mirror is transparent glass, 
 through which the ray passes on its way to the revolv- 
 ing mirror, but on coming back a portion of the light is 
 
62 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. vin. 
 
 reflected at right angles to the eye of the observer. This 
 involves much loss of light, and in more recent experi- 
 ments the revolving mirror is slightly tilted, so that the 
 returning ray passes beneath the outgoing ray, and is 
 then reflected by a mirror or total reflexion prism to the 
 eye of the observer. Now let us suppose the revolving 
 mirror to be at rest. The various nairrors are first accu- 
 rately adjusted, so that the narrow slit of light (or a fine 
 wire in its centre) is so reflected by the three mirrors that 
 it can be seen in the observing eye piece, and its posi- 
 tion on a fine micrometer exactly noted. If now the 
 mirror is slowly revolved, the line of light will appear 
 and disappear at each revolution; but if it is made to re- 
 volve more than thirty times a second, the line of light 
 will be seen motionless, on the same principle that a 
 rapidly moving luminous object is seen as an illuminated 
 riband. But if light requires any time, however mi- 
 nute, to travel from the revolving to the concave mirror 
 and back again, the mirror will during that time have 
 turned a little on its axis, and the returning ray of light 
 will be reflected to a slightly different point on the 
 diagonal mirror and on the micrometer scale of the eye 
 piece. In Foucault's experiment the distance between 
 the concave and revolving mirrors was only thirteen and 
 a half feet, and he had to make the mirror revolve six 
 hundred times in a second before the returning ray was 
 shifted rather less than one hundredth of an inch. By 
 increasing the speed to eight hundred revolutions the dis- 
 tance was increased to about twelve thousandths of an 
 inch, which, under a powerful magnifier, could be meas- 
 ured with great precision. Having measured with great 
 accuracy the distance between the mirrors, and knowing 
 
CHAP. viii. PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES. 63 
 
 the exact number of revolutions a second of the mirror, 
 which was shown by a simple clockwork connected with 
 it, the velocity of light was deduced as being 185,157 
 miles per second. 
 
 It is evident that there are here several sources of 
 error. The short distance traversed by the light renders 
 it necessary for the revolving mirror to turn with ex- 
 treme rapidity, while the observed displacement of the 
 ray is very small. Minute errors in the various meas- 
 urements will therefore be enormously multiplied in the 
 result. To obviate these difficulties the concave mirror 
 has been placed much further away; and in the most 
 recent and most accurate experiments by Professor New- 
 combe at Washington, the distance between the revolv- 
 ing and the concave mirrors was about two and a half 
 miles, and the mirror revolved two hundred and thirty 
 times a second. This gave such a large displacement of 
 the returning ray that it could be measured with extreme 
 accuracy, and the average of numerous trials gave the 
 velocity of light as 186,327 miles per second. It thus 
 appears that Foucault's measurement in a small room 
 was only in error about y^^, or a little more than a half 
 of one per cent., a wonderful testimony to his skill as an 
 experimenter under such unfavorable conditions. Pro- 
 fessor ISTewcombe believes that his determination is cor- 
 rect within nr^^nr* but he thinks that by placing the 
 mirrors twenty or thirty miles apart in the clear atmos- 
 phere of the Eocky Mountains a still greater approach 
 to perfect accuracy could be obtained.^ 
 
 The same M. Leon Foucault who made these beautiful 
 
 'For a more detailed account of Professor Newcombe'a experi- 
 ments, see Nature, vol. xxxiv. p. 170. 
 
64 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. vm. 
 
 experiments on the measurement of the velocity of hght 
 has also discovered a method by which the rotation of the 
 earth on its axis can be experimentally demonstrated. 
 When a heavy body is in free motion in any direction, it 
 requires force to change the direction; and if no such 
 force is applied, it will continue its motion in the same 
 straight line or in the same plane. If a heavy pendulum 
 is suspended from the axis of a horizontal wheel by a 
 very long, thin wire, and if, when swinging in a fixed 
 line across the room, the wheel is slowly turned, either 
 the wire will twist a little or the ball forming the weight 
 of the pendulum will revolve, but the plane in which the 
 weight swings will not be altered. On the same prin- 
 ciple, any pendulum freely swinging near the JSTorth 
 Pole will not change the direction of its swing, although 
 its point of support revolves in twenty-four hours with 
 the earth's surface to which it is attached. On trying 
 the experiment with a heavy weight suspended from the 
 dome of the Pantheon in Paris and carefully set swing- 
 ing, the plane of oscillation of the weight was found ap- 
 parently to change at a iTuiform rate, and always in the 
 same direction, which was opposite to that of the earth's 
 rotation; proving that the surface of the earth moved 
 round while the plane of oscillation remained fixed in 
 space. This experiment can be tried in any place free 
 from currents of air, such as a cellar. It only requires 
 a heavy weight, say of 28 lbs., to be suspended by a 
 string just strong enough to bear it. The weight must 
 be drawn three or iowr feet away from the vertical line 
 and fastened by a thread, so as to be set swinging by 
 burning the thread without giving it any lateral motion. 
 In an hour the line of swing will be found to have 
 
CKAT. VIII. PHYSICAL PKINCIPLES. 65 
 
 changed considerably, and in a direction opposite to 
 that of the earth's rotation. At the North Pole a circle 
 drawn on the surface turns completely round in twenty- 
 four hours, so that a pendulum swung there, with a circle 
 beneath it divided like a twenty-four-hour clock dial, 
 would appear to revolve, and would tell the time. At 
 the Equator, however, a circle on the surface of the earth' 
 does not itself rotate on its centre as at the Pole, but is 
 merely carried round the earth with the north and south 
 points of the circumference preserving the same direc- 
 tion in space. Therefore, at the Equator a pendulum 
 should show no motion of rotation. At all inteiwening 
 points it will appear to rotate, but slower and slower as 
 we recede from the Pole; and mathematical calculation 
 shows that, while at the Pole it apparently moves 
 through an angle of 15° in an hour, at London it would 
 move a little less than 12°, at Paris 11^°, at New York 
 9|°, and at Ceylon somewhat less than 2° an hour. Ex- 
 periments have been tried at each of these places, and 
 the rate of apparent rotation of the pendulum has been 
 found to agree very closely with the calculated amount, 
 thus giving a complete proof that the apparent rotation 
 is really due to the rotation of the earth on its axis. 
 This mode of rendering the earth's rotation visible, in 
 such a simple and convincing manner, is a discovery of 
 considerable interest, even among the many wonderful 
 discoveries of the century. 
 
 One more of these minor applications of scientific 
 principles, leading to very startling results, must be 
 briefly described. All sounds, including the infinitely 
 varied modulations of the human voice, have long been 
 
66 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, vin. 
 
 known to be due to successive air-waves set up by vari- 
 ous vibrating substances; but it would seem impossible 
 by any mechanical means to reproduce these complex 
 vibrations so exactly as to cause the words of the origi- 
 nal speaker to be again heard, quite intelligibly, and 
 with all their tones and modulations, at any distant time 
 or place. Yet this has been done by means of the in- 
 strument called the phonograph, one of the many in- 
 genious inventions of the American, Edison. 
 
 In the telephone this is effected instantaneously 
 through the medium of an electric current, which repro- 
 duces the vibrations set up by the voice of the speaker in 
 a delicate elastic diaphragm by means of another dia- 
 phragm at the end of the conducting wire, perhaps hun- 
 dreds of miles away, as already explained in Chapter 
 III. In the phonograph the whole operation is mechan- 
 ical. A diaphragm is set vibrating by the voice as in 
 the telephone, but instead of being reproduced at a dis- 
 tance by means of an electric current, it registers itself 
 permanently on a cylinder of very hard wax, as an in- 
 dented spiral line. This is effected by means of a fine 
 steel point, like a graving tool, connected by a delicate 
 lever with the centre of the diaphragm. The wax cylin- 
 der turns and travels onward at a perfectly uniform rate, 
 which can be delicately adjusted, so that the steel point, 
 if stationary, will cut in it a very fine spiral groove, uni- 
 form in depth from end to end, the turns of the groove 
 being very close to each other. But when the diaphragm 
 is set vibrating by the voice of the speaker, the steel point 
 moves rapidly up and down, and the resulting groove 
 continually varies in depth, forming a complex series of 
 undulations. If, now, the cylinder is shifted back so 
 
CHAP. Tin. PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES. 67 
 
 that the steel point is exactly where it was at starting, 
 and the cylinder is then made to revolve and move on- 
 ward at exactly the same rate as before, the up and down 
 motions of the style, due to the irregular depth of the 
 groove, set up the very same series of vibrations in the 
 diaphragm as those which cut the groove; and these 
 vibrations reproduce the voice with marvellous fidelity, 
 so that the most complex and rapid speech, or the most 
 exquisite singing, can be heard quite intelligibly, and 
 with all their modulations and expressiveness, though 
 not in exactly the same tone of voice. 
 
 The cylinders thus produced can be preserved for 
 years, can be carried to any part of the world, and by 
 means of a duplicate of the original instrument will there 
 reproduce the words and the vocal peculiarities of the 
 speaker. Phonographs are now largely manufactured, 
 and are used for a variety of purposes. They serve for 
 the rapid dictation of correspondence, which can be re- 
 produced and copied by a clerk later on; to take down 
 discussions verbatim, with a perfection that no short- 
 hand writer can rival; the singing or the elocution of 
 celebrated performers is repeated for the gratification 
 of friends or to amuse private parties ; actors, musicians, 
 and clergymen use the instrument as a means of improv- 
 ing their style ; and even the languages, songs, and folk- 
 lore of dying-out tribes are being preserved on these 
 wonderful cylinders. 
 
 Probably there is no instrument in the world which 
 so impresses the observer with the apparent inadequacy 
 of the means to bring about so marvellous a result. At 
 the same time it renders more mysterious than ever the 
 properties and possibilities of air-waves, and the extreme 
 
68 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. viii. 
 
 delicacy of the ear and auditory nerA'es, Avhicli enable us 
 instantaneously to interpret any one set of these vibra- 
 tions, amidst the many other sets of air-waves ai'ising 
 from various sources which must be continually crossing 
 and intermingling in apparently inextricable confusion. 
 The phonograph, whether as illustrating the ingenuity 
 of man or the marvellous perfection of our organism, 
 will certainly take high rank among the new inventions 
 of the nineteenth century. 
 
CHAPTER IS. 
 
 THE IMPOKTATS^CE OF DUST: A SOURCE OF BEAUTY AND 
 ESSKiXTlAL TO LIFE. 
 
 Wlien the lamp is shattered, 
 
 TIr! light ill the dust lies dead ; 
 Wlieii the cloud is scattered, 
 The rainbow's glory is shed. 
 
 — Sluiley. 
 How beautiful is the rain ! 
 After the dust and heat, 
 In the broad and liery street, 
 In the narrow lane, 
 How beautiful is the raiu ! 
 
 — Ldiigfellow. 
 
 The majority of persons, if asked wliat were the uses 
 of dust, would reply that they did not know it had any, 
 but they were sure it was a great nuisance. It is true 
 that dust, in our towns and in our houses is often not 
 only a nuisance but a serious source of disease; while in 
 many countries it produces ophthalmia, often resulting in 
 total blindness. Dust, however, as it is usually pej-- 
 ceived by us, is, like dirt, only matter in the wrong place, 
 and whatever injurious or disagreeable effects it pro- 
 duces are largely d\ie to our own dealings with nature. 
 So soon as we disi»ense with horse-power and adopt 
 purely mechanical means of traction and conveyance, 
 we can almost wholly al)olish disease-bearing dust from 
 our streets, and ultimately from all our highways ; while 
 another kind of dust, that caused by the imperfect com- 
 bustion of coal, may be got rid of with equal facility so 
 
70 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 soon as we consider pure air, sunlight, and natural 
 beauty to be of more importance to the population as a 
 whole than are the prejudices or the vested interests of 
 those who produce the smoke. 
 
 But though we can thus minimize the dangers and the 
 inconveniences arising from the grosser forms of dust, 
 we cannot wholly abolish it; and it is, indeed, fortunate 
 we cannot do so, since it has now been discovered that it 
 is to the presence of dust we owe much of the beauty, 
 and perhaps even the very habitability, of the earth we 
 live upon. Few of the fairy tales of science are more 
 marvellous than these recent discoveries as to the varied 
 effects and important uses of dust in the economy of 
 nature. 
 
 The question why the sky and the deep ocean are both 
 blue did not much concern the earlier physicists. It 
 was thought to be the natural color of pure air and water, 
 so pale as not to be visible when small quantities were 
 seen, and only exhibiting its true tint when we looked 
 through great depths of atmosphere or of organic water. 
 But this theory did not explain the familiar facts of the 
 gorgeous tints seen at sunset and sunrise, not only in the 
 atmosphere and on the clouds near the horizon, but also 
 in equally resplendent hues when the invisible sun shines 
 upon Alpine peaks and snowfields. A true theory 
 should explain all these colors, which comprise almost 
 every tint of the rainbow. 
 
 The explanation was found through experiments on 
 the visibility or non-visibility of air, which were made 
 by the late Professor Tyndall about the year 1868. 
 Everyone has seen the floating dust in a sunbeam when 
 sunshine enters a partially darkened room; but it is not 
 
CHAP. IX. THE IMPORTANCE OF DUST. 71 
 
 generally known that if there was absolutely no dust in 
 the air the path of the sunbeam would be totally black 
 and in\'isible, while if only very little dust was present 
 in very minute particles the air would be as blue as a 
 summer sky. 
 
 This was proved by passing a ray of electric light 
 lengthways through a long glass cylinder filled with air 
 of varying degrees of purity as regards dust. In the 
 air of an ordinary room, however clean and well venti- 
 lated, the interior of the cylinder appears brilliantly 
 illuminated. But if the cylinder is exhausted and then 
 filled with air which has passed slowly through a fine 
 gauze of intensely heated platinum wire, so as to burn 
 up all the floating dust particles, which are mainly 
 organic, the light will pass through the cylinder without 
 illuminating the interior, which, vieAved laterally, will 
 appear as if filled with a dense black cloud. If, now, 
 more air is passed into the cylinder through the heated 
 gauze, but so rapidly that the dust particles are not 
 wholly consumed, a slight blue haze will begin to appear, 
 which will gradually become a pure blue, equal to that 
 of a summer sky. If more and more dust particles are 
 allowed to enter, the blue becomes paler, and gradually 
 changes to the colorless illumination of the ordinary air. 
 
 The explanation of these phenomena is that the num- 
 ber of dust particles in ordinary air is so great that they 
 reflect abundance of light of all wave-lengths, and thus 
 cause the interior of the vessel containing them to ap- 
 pear illuminated with white light. The air which has 
 passed slowly over white-hot platinum has had the dust 
 particles destroyed, thus showing that they were almost 
 •Vfholly of org;anic origin, which is also indicated by their 
 
72 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 extreme lightness, causing tliena to float permanently in 
 the atmosphere. The dust being thus got rid of, and 
 pure air being entirely transparent, there is nothing in 
 the cylinder to reflect the light which is sent through its 
 centre in a beam of parallel rays, so that none of it strikes 
 against the sides; hence the inside of the cylinder appears 
 absolutely dark. But when all the larger dust particles 
 are wholly or partially burnt, so that only the very 
 smallest fragments remain, a blue light appears, because 
 these are so minute as to reflect chiefly the more refran- 
 gible rays, which are of shorter wave-length — those at 
 the blue end of the spectrum, which are thus scattered in 
 all directions, wliile the red and yellow rays pass straight 
 on as before. 
 
 \\^e have seen that the air near the earth's surface is 
 full of rather coarse particles which reflect all the rays, 
 and which therefore produce no one color. But higher 
 up tbe jiarticles necessarily become smaller and smaller, 
 since the comparatively rare atmosphere will only sup- 
 port the very smallest and lightest. These exist 
 throughout a great thickness of air, jjerhaps from one 
 mile to ten miles high or even moi'e, and blue or violet 
 ra3's being reflected from the innumerable particles in 
 this great mass of air, which is nearly uniform in all 
 parts of the -^vorld as regards the presence of minute 
 dust particles, produces the constant and nearly uniform 
 tint we call sky-blue. A certain amount of white or 
 yellow light is no doubt reflected fi'om the coarser dust 
 in the lower atmosphere, and slightly dihites the blue 
 and renders it not quite so deep and pure as it otherwise 
 would be. This is shown by the increasing depth of the 
 sky-color when seen from the tops of lofty mountains, 
 
OHAP.ix. THE IMPORTANCE OP DtJST. n 
 
 while from the still greater heights attained in balloons 
 the skj appears of a blue-black color, the blue reflected 
 from the comparatively small amount of dust particles 
 being seen against the intense black of stellar space. It 
 is for the same reason that the " Italian skies " are of so 
 rich a blue, because the Mediterranean Sea on one side 
 and the snowy Alps on the other do not furnish so lai'ge 
 a quantity of atmospheric dust in the lower strata of air 
 as in less favorably situated countries, thus leaving the 
 blue reflected by the more uniformly distributed fine 
 dust of the higher strata undiluted. But these Mediter- 
 ranean skies are surpassed by those of the central Pacific 
 ocean, where, owing to the small area of land, the lower 
 atmosphere is more free from coarse dust than any other 
 part of the world. 
 
 If we look at the sky on a perfectly fine summer's day, 
 we shall find that the blue color is the most pure and 
 intense overhead, and when looking high up in a direc- 
 tion opposite to the sun. Near the horizon it is always 
 less bright, while in the region immediately round the 
 sun it is more or less yellow. The reason of this is that 
 near the horizon we look through a very great thickness 
 of the lower atmosphere, which is full of the larger dust 
 particles reflecting white light, and this dilutes the pure 
 blue of the higher atmosphere seen beyond. And in 
 the vicinity of the sun a good deal of the blue light is 
 reflected back into space by the finer dust, thus giving a 
 yellowish tinge to that which reaches us reflected chiefly 
 from the coarse dust of the lower atmosphere. At sun- 
 set and sunrise, however, this last effect is greatly inten- 
 sified, owing to the great thickness of the strata of air 
 through which the light reaches us. The enormous 
 
74 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. ix. 
 
 amount of this dust is well shown by the fact that, then 
 only, we can look full at the sun, even when the whole 
 sky is free from clouds and there is no apparent mist. 
 But the sun's rays then reach us after having passed, 
 first, through an enormous thickness of the higher strata 
 of the air, the minute dust of which reflects most of the 
 blue rays away from us, leaving the complementary yel- 
 low light to pass on. Then, the somewhat coarser dust 
 reflects the green rays, leaving a more orange colored 
 light to pass on; and finally some of the yellow is re- 
 flected, leaving almost pure red. But owing to the con- 
 stant presence of air currents, arranging both the dust 
 and vapor in strata of varying extent and density, and 
 of high or low clouds, which both absorb and reflect the 
 light in varying degrees, we see produced all those won- 
 drous combinations of tints and those gorgeous ever- 
 changing colors, which are a constant source of admira- 
 tion and delight to all Avho have the advantage of an 
 uninterrupted view to the west, and who are accustomed 
 to watch for these not unfrequent exhibitions of nature's 
 kaleidoscopic color-painting. With every change in the 
 altitude of the sun the display changes its character; and 
 most of all when it has sunk below the horizon, and, 
 owing to the more favorable angles, a larger quantity of 
 the colored light is reflected toward us. Especially 
 when there is a certain amount of cloud is this the case. 
 These, so long as the sun was above the horizon, inter- 
 cepted much of the light and color; but, when the great 
 luminarj' has passed away from our direct vision, his 
 light shines more directly on the under sides of all the 
 clouds and air strata of different densities; a new and 
 more brilliant light flushes the western sky, and a dis- 
 
CHAP. IX. THE IMPORTANCE OP DUST. 75 
 
 play of gorgeous ever-changing tints occurs which are 
 at once the delight of the beholder and the despair of the 
 artist. And all this unsurpassable glory we owe to — 
 dust! 
 
 A remarkable confirmation of this theory was given 
 during the two or three years after the great eruption of 
 Krakatoa, near Java. The volcanic debris was shot up 
 from the crater many miles high, and the heavier por- 
 tion of it fell upon the sea for several hundred miles 
 around, and was found to be mainly composed of very 
 thin flakes of volcanic glass. Much of this was of 
 course ground to impalpable dust by the violence of the 
 discharge, and was carried up to a height of many miles. 
 Here it was caught by the return current of air con- 
 tinually flowing northward and southward above the 
 equatorial zone; and as these currents reach the temper- 
 ate zone where the surface rotation of the earth is less 
 rapid they continually flow eastward, and the fine dust 
 was thus carried at a great altitude completely round the 
 earth. Its effects were traced some months after the 
 eruption in the appearance of brilliant sunset glows of an 
 exceptional character, often flushing with crimson the 
 whole western half of the visible sky. These glows 
 continued in diminishing splendor for about three years-, 
 they were seen all over the temperate zone, and it was 
 calculated that, before they finally disappeared, some of 
 this fine dust must have travelled three times round the 
 globe. 
 
 The same principle is thought to explain the exquisite 
 blue color of the deep seas and oceans and of many 
 lakes and springs. Absolutely pure water, like pure 
 air, is colorless, but all seas and lakes, however clear and 
 
76 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. cnAP. ts. 
 
 translucent, contain abundance of very finely divided 
 matter, organic or inorganic, which, as in the atmos- 
 phere, reflects the blue rays in such quantity as to over- 
 power the wliite or colored liglit reflected from the fewer 
 and more rapidly sinking particles of larger size. The 
 oceanic dust is derived from many sources. Minute 
 organisms are constantly dying near the surface, and 
 their skeletons, or fragments of them, fall slowly to the 
 bottom. The mud brought down by rivers, though it 
 cannot be traced on the ocean floor more than about 150 
 miles from land, yet no doubt furnishes many particles 
 of organic matter which are carried by surface currents 
 to enormous distances and are ultimately dissolved be- 
 fore they reach the bottom. A more important source 
 of finely divided matter is to be fo\md in volcanic dust 
 which, as in the case of Krakatoa, may remain for years 
 in the atmosphere, but which must ultimately fall upon 
 the surface of the earth and ocean. This can be traced 
 in all the deep-sea oozes. Finally there is meteoric dust, 
 which is coiitiniTally falling to the surface of the earth, 
 but in such minute quantities and in such a finely- 
 divirled state that it can only be detected in the oozes of 
 the deepest oceans, where both inorganic and organic 
 debris is almost absent. 
 
 The blue of the ocean varies in different parts from a 
 pure blue somewhat lightei- than that of the sky, as seen 
 about the northern tropic in the Atlantic, to a deep 
 indigo tint, as seen in the north temperate portions of 
 the same ocean: due, probably, to differences in the 
 nature, quantity, and distribution of the solid matter 
 which causes the color. The Mediterranean, and the 
 deeper Swiss lakes are also blue of various tints, due 
 
cbAP.ix. THE IMPORT AlfCE OF BUST. W 
 
 also to the presence of suspended matter, which Pro- 
 fessor Tyndall thought might be so fine that it would re- 
 quire ages of quiet subsidence to reach the bottom. All 
 the evidence goes to show, therefore, that the exquisite 
 blue tints of sky and ocean, as well as all the sunset hues 
 of sky and cloud, of mountain peak and alpine snows, 
 are due to the finer particles of that very dust which, in 
 its coarser forms, we find so annoying and even dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 But if this production of color and beauty were the 
 only useful function of dust, some persons might be dis- 
 posed to dispense with it in order to escape its less agree- 
 able effects. It has, liowever, been rscentlj^ discovered 
 that dust has another part to play in nature; a part so 
 important that it is doubtful whether we could even live 
 without it. To the presence of dust in the higher atmos- 
 phere we owe the formation of mists, clouds, and gentle 
 beneficial rains, instead of waterspouts and destructive 
 torrents. 
 
 It is barely twenty years ago since the discovery was 
 made, first in France by Coulier and ]\Iascart, but more 
 thoroughly worked out by Mr. John Aitken in 1880. 
 He found that if a jet of steam is admitted into two 
 large glass receivers, — one filled with ordinary air, the 
 other with air which has been filtered through cotton 
 wool so as to keep back all particles of soHd matter, — the 
 first will be instantly filled with condensed vapor in the 
 usual cloudy form, while the other vessel will remain 
 quite transparent. Another experiment was made, more 
 nearly reproducing what occurs in nature. Some water 
 was placed in the two vessels prepared as before. When 
 
78 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 the water had evaporated sufficiently to saturate the air 
 the vessels were slightly cooled, when a dense cloud was 
 at once formed in the one while the other remaind quite 
 clear. These experiments, and many others, showed 
 that the mere cooling of vapor in air will not condense 
 it into mist clouds or rain, unless particles of solid 
 matter are present to form nuclei upon which condensa- 
 tion can begin. The density of the cloud is proportion- 
 ate to the number of the particles; hence the fact that 
 the steam issuing from the safety-valve or the chimney 
 of a locomotive forms a dense white cloud shows that 
 the air is really full of dust particles, most of which are 
 microscopic but none the less serving as centres of con- 
 densation for the vapor. Hence, if there were no dust 
 in the air, escaping steam would remain invisible; there 
 would be no clouds in the sky; and the vapor in the at- 
 mosphere, constantly accumulating through evaporation 
 from seas and oceans and from the earth's surface, would 
 have to find some other means of returning to its source. 
 One of these modes would be the deposition of dew, 
 which is itself an illustration of the principle that vapor 
 requires solid or liqviid surfaces to condense upon ; hence 
 dew forms more readily and more abundantly on grass, 
 on account of the numerous centres of condensation it 
 affords. Dew, however, is now formed only on clear cold 
 nights after warm or moist days. The air near the sur- 
 face is warm and contains much vapor, though below the 
 point of saturation. But the innumerable points and ex- 
 tensive surfaces of grass radiate heat quickly, and becom- 
 ing cool, lower the temperature of the adjacent air, which 
 then reaches saturation point and condenses the con- 
 tained vapor on the grass. Hence, if the atmosphere at 
 
OBAP.ix. THE IMPORTANCE OF DUST. 79 
 
 the earth's surface became super-saturated with aqueous 
 vapor, dew would be continuously deposited, especially 
 on every form of vegetation, the result being that every- 
 thing, including our clothing, would be constantly drip- 
 ping wet. If there were absolutely no particles of solid 
 matter in the upper atmosphere, all the moisture would 
 be returned to the earth in the form of dense mists, and 
 frequent and copious dews, which in forests would form 
 torrents of rain by the rapid condensation on the leaves. 
 But if we suppose that solid particles were occasionally 
 carried higher up through violent winds or tornadoes, 
 then on those occasions the super-saturated atmosphere 
 would condense rapidly upon them, and while falling 
 would gather almost all the moisture in the atmosphere 
 in that locality, resulting in masses or sheets of water, 
 which would be so ruinously destructive by the mere 
 weight and impetus of their fall that it is doubtful 
 whether they would not render the earth almost wholly 
 uninhabitable. 
 
 The chief mode of discharging the atmospheric vapor 
 in the absence of dust would, however, be by contact 
 with the higher slopes of all mountain ranges. Atmos- 
 pheric vapor, being lighter than air, would accumulate 
 in enormous quantities in the upper strata of the atmos- 
 phere, which would be always super-saturated and ready 
 to condense upon any solid or liquid surfaces. But the 
 quantity of land comprised in the upper half of all the 
 mountains of the world is a very small fraction of the 
 total surface of the globe, and this would lead to very 
 disastrous results. The air in contact with the higher 
 mountain slopes would rapidly discharge its water, which 
 would run down the mountain sides in torrents. This 
 
S6 I'HE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. ix. 
 
 condensation on every side of the mountains would leave 
 a partial vacuum which would set up currents from 
 every direction to restore the equilibrium, tlius bring- 
 ing in more super-saturated air to suffer condensation 
 and add its supply of water, again increasing the in- 
 draught of more air. The result would be that winds 
 would be constantly blowing toward every mountain 
 range from all directions, keeping up the condensation 
 and discharging, day and night and from one year's end 
 to another, an amount of water equal to that which falls 
 during the heaviest tropical rains. The whole of the 
 rain that now falls over the whole surface of the earth 
 and ocean, with the exception of a few desert areas, 
 would then fall only on rather high mountains or steep 
 isolated hills, tearing down their sides in huge torrents, 
 cutting deep ravines, and rendering all growth of vege- 
 tation impossible. The mountains would therefore be so 
 devastated as to be uninhabitable, and wovild be equally 
 incapable of supporting either vegetable or animal life. 
 
 But this constant condensation on the mountains 
 would probably check the deposit on the lowlands in the 
 form of dew, because the continual ujJ-draught toward 
 the higher slopes would withdraw almost the whole of 
 the vapor as it rose from the oceans and other water- 
 surfaces, and thus leave the lower strata over the plains 
 almost or quite dry. And if this were the case there 
 would be no vegetation, and therefore no animal life, on 
 the plains and lowlands, which would thus be all arid 
 deserts cut through by the great rivers formed "by the 
 meeting together of the innumerable torrents from the 
 mountains. 
 
 Now, although it may not be possible to determine 
 
CHAP. IX. THE IMPORTANCE OF DUST. 81 
 
 with perfect accuracy what would happen under the 
 supposed condition of the atmosphere, it is certain tliat 
 the total absence of dust would so fundamentally change 
 the meteorology of our globe as, not improbably, to ren- 
 der it uninhabitable by man, and equally unsuitable for 
 the larger portion of its existing animal and vegetable 
 life. 
 
 Let us now briefly summarize what we owe to the 
 universality of dust, and especially to that most finely 
 divided portion of it which is constantly present in the 
 atmosphere up to the height of many miles. First of all 
 it gi\'es us the pure blue of the sky, one of the most ex- 
 quisitely beautiful colors in nature. It gives us also the 
 glories of the sunset and the sunrise, and all those bril- 
 liant hxies seen in high mountain regions. Half the 
 beauty of the world would vanish with the absence of 
 dust. But, what is far more important than the color 
 of sky and beauty of sunset, dust gives us also diffused 
 daylight, or skylight, that most equable, and soothing, 
 and useful, of all illuminating agencies. Without dust 
 the sky woiild appear absolutely l)lack, and the stars 
 would be viable even at noonclay. The sky itself would 
 therefore give us no light. We sliould have bright glar- 
 ing sunlight or intensely dark shadows, with hardly any 
 half-tones. From this cause alone the world would be 
 so totally different from what it is that all vegetable and 
 animal life would probably have developed into very 
 different forms, and even our own organization would 
 have been modified in order that we might enjoy life in 
 a world of such harsh and violent contrasts. 
 
 In our houses we should have little light except when 
 the sun shone directly into tliern, and even then every 
 
82 -THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 spot out of its direct rays would be completely dark, ex- 
 cept for light reflected from the walls. It would be 
 necessary to have windows all round and the walls all 
 white ; and on the north side of every house a high white 
 wall would have to be built to reflect the light and pre- 
 vent that side from being in total darkness. Even then 
 we should have to live in a perpetual glare, or shut out 
 the sun altogether and use artificial light as being a far 
 superior article. 
 
 Much more important would be the effects of a dust- 
 free atmosphere in banishing clouds, or mist, or the 
 " gentle rain of heaven," and in giving us in their place 
 perpetual sunshine, desert lowlands, and moimtains 
 devastated by unceasing floods and raging torrents, so as, 
 apparently, to render all life on the earth impossible. 
 
 There are a few other phenomena, apparently due to 
 the same general causes, which may here be referred to. 
 Everyone must ha^'e noticed the difference in the atmos- 
 pheric eifects and general character of the light in 
 spring and autumn, at times when the days are of the 
 same length, and consequently when the sun has the 
 same altitude at corresponding hours. In spring we 
 have a bluer sky and greater transparency of the atmos- 
 phere; in autumn, even on very fine days, there is 
 always a kind of yellowish haze, resulting in a want of 
 clearness in the air and purity of color in the sky. 
 These phenomena are quite intelligible when we con- 
 sider that during winter less dust is formed, and more is 
 brought down to the earth by rain and snow, resulting in 
 the transparent atmosphere of spring, while exactly 
 opposite conditions during summer bring about the mel- 
 low autumnal light. Again, the well-knQwn beneficial 
 
CHAP. IX. THE IMPORTANCE OF DUST. 83 
 
 effects of rain on vegetation, as compared with any 
 amount of artificial watering, though, no doubt, lai'gely 
 due to the minute quantity of ammonia which the rain 
 brings down with it from the air, must yet be partly 
 derived from the organic or mineral particles which 
 serve as the nuclei of every raindrop, and which, being 
 so minute, are more readily dissolved in the soil and ap- 
 propriated as nourishment by the roots of plants. 
 
 It will be observed that all these beneficial effects of 
 dust are due to its presence in such quantities as are pro- 
 duced by natural causes, since both gentle showers as 
 well as ample rains and deep blue skies are present 
 throughout the vast equatorial forest districts, where 
 dust-forming agencies seem to be at a minimum. But 
 in all densely-populated countries there is an enormous 
 artificial production of dust — from our ploughed fields, 
 from our roads and streets, where dust is continually 
 formed by the iron-shod hoofs of innumerable horses, 
 but chiefly from our enormous combustion of fuel pour- 
 ing into the air volumes of smoke charged with uncon- 
 sumed particles of carbon. This superabundance of 
 dust, probably many times greater than that which would 
 be produced under the more natural conditions which 
 prevailed when our country was more thinly populated, 
 must almost certainly produce some effect on our 
 climate; and the particular effect it seems calculated to 
 produce is the increase of cloud and fog, but not neces-. 
 sarily any increase of rain. Kain depends on the supply 
 of aqueous vapor by evaporation; on temperature, which 
 determines the dew point; and on changes in barometric 
 pressure, which determine the winds. There is prob- 
 ably always and everywhere enough atmospheric dugt 
 
84 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 to serve as centres of condensation at considerable alti- 
 tudes, and thus to initiate rainfall when the other con- 
 ditions are favorable ; but the presence of increased quan- 
 tities of dust at the lower levels must lead to the forma- 
 tion of denser clouds, although the minute water-vesicles 
 cannot descend as rain, because, as they pass down into 
 warmer and dryer strata of air, they are again evapo- 
 rated. 
 
 Now, there is much evidence to show that there has 
 been a considerable increase in the amount of cloud, and 
 consequent decrease in the amount of sunshine, in all 
 parts of our country. It is an undoubted fact that in 
 the lyiiddle Ages 'England was a wine-producing coun- 
 try, and this implies more sunshine than we have now. 
 Sunshine has a double effect, in heating the surface soil 
 and thus causing more rapid growth, besides its direct 
 effect in ripening the fruit. This is well seen in Canada, 
 where, notwithstanding a six months' winter of extreme 
 severity, vines are grown as bushes in the open ground, 
 and produce fruit equal to that of our ordinary green- 
 houses. Some years back one of our gardening period- 
 icals obtained from gardeners of forty or fifty years' 
 experience a body of facts clearly indicating a compara- 
 tively recent change of climate. Tt was stated that in 
 many parts of the country, especially in the north, fruits 
 were formerly grown successfully and of good quality 
 in gardens where they cannot be grown now; and this 
 occurred in places sufficiently removed from manu- 
 facturing centres to be unaffected by any direct deleteri- 
 ous influence of smoke. But an increase of cloud, and 
 consequent diminution of sunshine, would produce just 
 such a result; and this increase is almost certain to hav^ 
 
THE IMPORTANCE OF DUST. 85 
 
 occurred, owing to the enormously increased amount of 
 dust thrown into the atmosphere as our country has be- 
 come more densely populated, and especially owing to 
 the vast increase of our smoke-producing manufactories. 
 It seems highly probable, therefore, that to increase the 
 wealth of our capitalist-manufacturers we are allowing 
 the climate of our whole country to be greatly deterio- 
 rated in a way which diminishes both its productiveness 
 and its beauty, thus injuriously affecting the enjoyment 
 and the health of the M'hole population, since sunshine is 
 itself an essential condition of healthy life. When this 
 fact is thoroughly realized we shall surely put a stop to 
 such a reckless and wholly unnecessary production of in- 
 jurious smoke and dust. 
 
 In conclusion, we find that the much-abused and all- 
 pervading dust, which, when too freely produced, de- 
 teriorates our climate and brings us dirt, discomfort, and 
 even disease, is, nevertheless, under natural conditions, 
 an essential portion of the economy of nature. It gives 
 us much of the beauty of natural scenery as due to vary- 
 ing atmospheric effects of sky, and cloud, and sunset 
 tints, and thus renders life more enjoyable; while, as an 
 essential condition of diffused daylight and of moderate 
 rainfalls combined with a dry atmosphere, it appears to 
 be absolutely necessary for our existence upon the earth, 
 perhaps even for the very development of terrestrial, as 
 opposed to aquatic life. The overwhelming importance 
 of the small things, and even of the despised things, of 
 our world has never, perhaps, been so strikingly brought 
 home to us as in these recent investigations into the wide- 
 spread and far-reaching beneficial influences of Atmos- 
 pheric Dust. 
 
CHAPTEK X. 
 
 A FEW OF THE GEEAT PEOBLEMS OF CILBMISTKT. 
 
 Force merges into force, 
 
 The atom seeks its kind ; 
 The elements are one, 
 
 And each with all combined. 
 
 —F. T. Palgrave. 
 
 O Lavoisier, master great, 
 
 We mourn your awful fate, 
 But never tire of singing to your praise. 
 
 You laid foundations true, 
 
 And we must trace to you 
 The chemistry of our enlightened days. 
 
 — Anon. 
 
 The science of modern chemistry has been created 
 during the present centviry, but its phenomena and laws 
 are so complex that it presents only a few of those great 
 discoveries which are the starting points for new devel- 
 opments, and which can at the same time be popularly 
 described. The most important of all — that which con- 
 stitutes the very foundation of chemistry as a science — ■ 
 is the law of chemical combination in multiple propor- 
 tions, together with the atomic theory which serves to 
 explain it. 
 
 The fact of chemical combination in definite propor- 
 tions was suspected by some of the older chemists, but 
 Dalton, in the early years of this century, was the first to 
 establish it firmly as a general principle, and to explain 
 it by means of a comparatively simple theory. To illus- 
 trate by examples, it is found that the two gases, nitrogen 
 
CHAP. ^. THE GREAT PROBLEMS OF CHEMISTRY. 87 
 
 and oxygen, combine to form a variety of compounds, 
 such as nitrous oxide or " laughing gas," nitric oxide, 
 and several others. Nitrous oxide, or in chemical lan- 
 guage, nitrogen monoxide, consists of 28 parts by weight 
 of nitrogen to 16 of oxygen, and all the other compounds 
 of the same gases consist of two, three, four, or five times 
 as much oxygon to the same quantity of nitrogen. 
 Water consists of 16 parts of oxygen to 2 of hydrogen, 
 and there is another compound in which 32 parts of oxy- 
 gen combine with the same weight of hydrogen, forming 
 hydrogen-dioxide or oxygenated water. This law ap- 
 plies to every chemical compound yet discovered, and as 
 every element has a minimum proportionate weight, 
 which can combine with any other element, these are 
 called the atomic or combining weights of the elements. 
 As the weight of the hydrogen in all its combinations is 
 much less than the weight of the element it combines 
 with, this gas is taken as the unit of measurement of 
 atomic weights. Nitrogen is thus found to have an 
 atomic weight of 14, oxygen 16, and chlorine 35. 
 These are all gases; but many solids have much lower 
 atomic weights, carbon being 12, and the rare metal 
 beryllium only 9. Of other metals, that of aluminium 
 is 27, copper 63, iron 56, silver 107, tin 117, and gold 
 196. There is thus no constant relation between atomic 
 weights and specific gravities. Tin is a little lighter 
 than iron, but has nearly double its atomic weight; gold 
 has a high atomic weight, but bismuth has a higher still, 
 although only half its specific gravity. 
 
 These facts are elucidated, and to some extent ex- 
 plained, by the atomic theory of Dalton. He supposed 
 each element to consist of atoms, an atom being the 
 
THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 smallest portion that has the properties of the element, 
 and the atom of each element has a different weight. 
 Hence, when one element combines with another, the 
 proportions must lie either those represented by the 
 atomic weights, or some multiple of those weights, since 
 the atoms are assmned to be indivisible. This will be 
 made clearer by another example. The atomic weights 
 of nitrogen and oxygen are as 14 to 16, and these ele- 
 ments combine in five different propoi'tions, as shown by 
 the following figures, each circle representing an atom of 
 the elements indicated by their initial letters: 
 
 Chemical 
 Sjmbol 
 
 ( N Y N V O J = Nitrogen monoxide N^ O 
 
 C^C^yC^jQ^ = Nitrogen dioxide N, 0^ 
 
 VyVA/vOC^C^ = Nitrogen tiioxide N, O3 
 
 C^Cy vOC^vOv^ = Nitrogen tetroxide N, O4 
 
 C '(^\^(y^\^Q\)00^ Nitrogen pentoxide N^ 0, 
 
 The atomic or combining weights of all the elements 
 having been carefully determined by numerous experi- 
 ments, a beautiful system of chemical symbols has been 
 formed which greatly facilitates the study of the in- 
 numerable complex substances that have to be investi- 
 gated. Each element is indicated either by one or two 
 letters, being the initial letter, or some two characteris- 
 tic letters, of its chemical name, so that nearly seventy 
 elements are thus clearly defined. But these symbols 
 represent not only the element, but a definite proper- 
 
CHAP.x. THE GKEAT PROBLEMS OP CHEMISTRY. 89 
 
 tional weight — the atomic weight. Thus H means a 
 unit weight of hydrogen; means 12 times that weight 
 of carbon; Fe (ferrum) means 56 times that weight of 
 iron. Hence the symbol for any compound substance 
 tells us in the most compact form possible, not only the 
 elements of which it is composed, but the exact propor- 
 tions in which these elements are combined. Thus 
 C J IT„ O is the chemical symbol for pure alcohol, show- 
 ing that it is a compound of two atoms of carbon, six of 
 hydrogen, and one of oxygen. Looking now at a table 
 of atomic weights, we find that this gives us 24 carbon, 
 6 hydrogen, and 16 oxygen in each 46 pai-ts of alcohol. 
 By means of these symbols and the accurate determina- 
 tion of atomic weights, all the complex combinations 
 and decompositions that occur during the investigations 
 of the chemist can be represented in a kind of chemical 
 algebra, and the peculiar formulte thus obtained often 
 suggest further experiments leading to new discoveries. 
 
 Almost at the same time that Dalton was working at 
 his atomic theory, Davy (afterward Sir Humphrey Davy) 
 made the remarkable discovery of two new elements by 
 decomposing soda and potash by means of an electric 
 current, resulting in the production of the metals, 
 sodium and potassium. This placed in the hands of 
 chemists a powerful agent which led to the discovery of 
 other elements, though in this respect it has been sur- 
 passed by spectrum analysis, which is equally effective in 
 the domains of chemistry and astronomy. 
 
 Among the more interesting discoveries of modem 
 chemistry are the methods of liquefying the various 
 gases, and even solidifying many of them; while by 
 means of the intense heat of the electric furnace all the 
 
90 TPIE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 solid elements can be melted and many vaporized, lead- 
 ing to the conclusion that all matter can exist in the 
 three states — solid, liquid, and gaseous, — accordmg to 
 the degree of heat to which it is exposed. 
 
 The highly complex constitution of various organic 
 products — albvunin, fat, gums, resins, acids, oils, ethers, 
 etc. — is the subject of organic chemistry, the study of 
 which has .led to some of the most popularly interesting 
 discoveries. Coal-tar has furnished us with a wonderful 
 series of coloring matters, such as the aniline and other 
 dyes, while from the same material are produced benzol, 
 carbolic acid, naphtha, creosote, artificial quinine, and 
 saccharine, a substitute for sugar. The new explosives, 
 such as dynamite and nitro-glycerin, are produced from 
 animal or vegetable fatty matters; while some of the I 
 greatest triumphs of the modern chemist are the artificial! 
 production of natural substances, which were long supi 
 posed to be due to organic processes alone. Such arej 
 the dye indigo, citric acid, urea, and some others. 
 
 The most recent great advance in the philosophy of 
 chemistry is exhibited in the views of the Russian 
 chemist, Mendeleef, as to the i.ati^ral arrangement of 
 the elements, with certain deductions from it. The 
 whole of the best known elements form eight groups, 
 placed in vertical columns, depending on certain simi- 
 larities in their powers of chemical combination. These 
 are further arranged in twelve horizontal series, in which 
 the atomic weights are most nearly alike, while increas- 
 ing regularly from the first to the eighth group. In the 
 table thus formed there are certain gaps in the regular 
 order of increase of atomic weights, as if some elements 
 were wanting, while in other cases the place of an ele- 
 
THE GREAT PROBLEMS OF CHEMISTRY. 
 
 91 
 
 ment due to its atomic weight did not accord with that 
 dependent on its chemical properties. But the general 
 symmetry of the whole arrangement was such that Men- 
 deleef predicted the future discovery of elements to fill 
 the gaps, and named the chemical and physical proper- 
 ties of these unknown elements. In a few years three 
 new elements were discovered — gallium, scandium, and 
 germanium — and they precisely filled up three of the 
 gaps in the system. Further research as to the atomic 
 weights of the elements that did not fit into the scheme 
 showed that errors had been made, that of uranium being 
 much too low, while in the cases of gold, tellurium, and 
 titanium it was too great. The remarkable success of 
 these predictions — a success always considered the best 
 proof of the truth of a theory — renders it almost certain 
 that the true relations of the elements have now been 
 approximately ascertained, while it strengthens the be- 
 lief of those who think that what we term elements are 
 not really so, but that their differences depend on special 
 modes of aggregation of a few simple atoms, whose co- 
 hesion is so strong that we are not yet, and perhaps never 
 shall be, able to overcome it. 
 
 It is therefore by no means impossible, perhaps not 
 even improbable, that methods will be discovered of 
 either breaking up some of the elements and producing 
 new elements which are common to two or more of them, 
 or of solving the problem which occupied the alchemists 
 of the Middle Ages — the transmutation of some of the 
 inferior metals into gold. Within the last few months 
 a well-known American chemist declares that he has 
 solved the problem of producing gold out of silver at a 
 comparatively small cost, and that when he has made a 
 
93 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. x. 
 
 few millions by liis process he will make it known. A 
 few years ago this claim would have been scouted as that 
 of a dreamer, but at the present day it is really less un- 
 expected than was the discovery of the marvellous 
 powers of what are termed the Eontgen rays. 
 
 It will thus be seen that chemistry, as a science, has 
 not furnished discoveries of such a startling nature as 
 those in the domain of physics. But this is largely due 
 to the fact that we have already, in our earlier chapters, 
 dealt with the more popular and industrial aspects of 
 chemical inventions. Gas illumination, petroleum oil- 
 lamps, lueifer matches, and all the wonders of photog- 
 raphy are essentially applications of chemistry; and the 
 last of these, in its marvellous results, both in the arts 
 and in its various applications to astronomical research, 
 is not surpassed by the achievements of any other depart- 
 ment of science. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 
 
 The wilder'd mind is tost and lost, 
 
 O sea, in thy eternal tide ; 
 The reeling brain essays iu vain, 
 
 O stars, to grasp the vastness wide ! 
 The terrible, tremendous scheme 
 
 That glimmers in each glancing light, 
 O night, O stars, too rudely jars 
 
 The finite with the infinite ! 
 
 —J. H. Bell. 
 
 Many of the most striking discoveries in this science 
 have been already described under Spectrum Analysis; 
 but there remain a few great advances, due either to ob- 
 servation or to theory, which are of sufficient popular 
 interest to demand notice in any sketch, however brief, 
 of the scientific progress of the century. 
 
 With the single exception of Uranus, discovered by 
 Herschel in 1781, no addition had been made to the five 
 planets known to the ancients till the commencement of 
 the present century, when Ceres, the first of the minor 
 planets, was discovered in 1801, and three others be- 
 tween that date and 1807. No more were found till one 
 was added in 1845, and another in 1847. Since that 
 time no year has passed without the detection of one or 
 more new planets belonging to the same system, till in 
 September, 1896, their number amounted to 417. 
 These small bodies form a kind of planetary ring situ- 
 ated between Mars and Jupiter, where it had long been 
 
M THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 suspected a planet ought to be found, because tlie dis- 
 tance between these older planets was so great as to be 
 quite out of proportion with the regular increase of dis- 
 tance maintained by the other members of the system. 
 It was at first thought that these asteroids or minor 
 planets were the shattered remains of a much larger one ; 
 but more extended knowledge of the constitution of the 
 solar system renders it more probable that they really 
 constitute a ring of matter thrown off by the sun during 
 its progressive contraction; and that some peculiar con- 
 ditions have prevented its various parts from aggregat- 
 ing into a single planet. This is rendered more probable 
 by two other remarkable discoveries relating to meteors 
 and comets, and to Saturn's rings, which will be dis- 
 cussed later on. 
 
 The next large planet added to our system is especially 
 interesting, as affording a striking demonstration of the 
 theory of gravitation, and a no less striking example of 
 the powers of modern mathematics. It had been found 
 that the motions of Uranus were not exactly what they 
 ought to be, if due solely to the attraction of the sun and 
 the disturbing influence of Jupiter and Saturn, and it 
 was thought possible that there might be another planet 
 beyond it to cause these irregularities. In the year 
 1843 a young Cambridge student (John Couch Adams) 
 of the highest mathematical ability, determined to see 
 whether it was not possible to prove the existence of such 
 a planet; and having taken his degree as Senior 
 Wrangler, he at once devoted himself to the work, and 
 after two years of study and calculation he was able to 
 declare that a planet which would account for the per- 
 turbation of Uranus must, if it existed, be at that time in 
 
CHAP. XI. ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 95 
 
 a certain part of the heavens, and he sent his paper on 
 the subject to the Astronomer-Royal in October, 1845. 
 By an extraordinary coincidence, a French astronomer 
 (Leverrier) had been for some years working out the 
 motions of the various planets, and in doing so had also 
 reached the conclusion that there must be another un- 
 known body to produce the perturbations of Uranus, 
 which were at that time unusvially large. His calcula- 
 tions and results were published at Paris in November, 
 1845, and June, 1846, and he gave a position for the 
 unknown planet differing only one degree from that 
 given by Adams. On reading these papers, and seeing 
 the agreement of two independent workers, the Astrono- 
 mer-Royal asked Professor Challis, of the Cambridge 
 Observatory, to search for the planet, and on doing so he 
 actually observed it on August 4th, and again on August 
 12th; but having no accurate chart of that part of the 
 heavens he could not be sure that it was not a small star. 
 A month later it was found and identified at Berlin, from 
 information furnished by Leverrier. It thus appears 
 that Adams first privately announced the position of the 
 new planet, and that it was first observed at Cambridge; 
 while the somewhat later announcement by Leverrier 
 and discovery at Berlin were made public, and thus 
 gained the honors of priority. The two discoveries 
 were, however, practically simultaneous and independ- 
 ent, and the names of Adams and Leverrier should for 
 ever be jointly associated with the planet jSTeptune. 
 
 Other important discoveries in the planetaiy system 
 are due to the increased power of modern telescopes and 
 the greater number of observers. In 1877 two minute 
 satellites of Mars were discovered at Washington, by 
 
96 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xi. 
 
 means of tlie large telescope with a 25-inch object glass, 
 then the largest in the world. These are remarkable in 
 being exceedingly small, and very close to the planet. 
 They are said to be only six or seven miles in diameter, 
 and the inner one is only about 5800 miles from the 
 centre, or 3800 from the surface, of the planet, aronnd 
 which it revolves in less than eight hours; while the 
 outer one is about 14,500 miles away, and revolves in a 
 little more than thirty hours. ^ 
 
 Still more recently (in September, 1892), a fifth satel- 
 lite of Jupiter was discovered by means of the great Lick 
 telescope in California. This also is very small and very 
 close to the planet, being less than half the diameter, or 
 about 40,000 miles, from its surface. 
 
 Another very remarkable discovery is that of a system 
 of symmetrical markings, covering a large part of the 
 surface of Mars. They consist of a series of triangles or 
 quadrilaterals bounded by straight lines, which are some- 
 times seen double, at other times single, or are even alto- 
 gether invisible. Another peculiar feature is, that 
 where these canals (as they are termed) intersect there is 
 always a black circular spot, very distinct, and unlike 
 any markings upon other parts of the surface. It is a 
 curious fact that the double canals sometimes enclose a 
 space of more than a hundred miles wide and several 
 
 ' In OuUiDcr's Travels, published in 1726, Swift describes the 
 astronomers of Laputa as liaving " discovered two lesser stars, or 
 satellites, which revolve around Mars ; whereof the innermost is 
 distant from the centre of the primary planet exactly three of his 
 diameters, and the outermost five ; the former revolves in the space 
 of ten hours, and the latter in twenty-one and a half." This is 
 a wonderful anticipation, especially as to time of revolution, and if 
 we substitute " radii " for " diameters," the distances are also very 
 near. 
 
CHAP. XI. ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 97 
 
 hundred long, adding to the appearance of artificiality. 
 Sometimes no canals are seen, but they come into view as 
 the polar snows begin to melt ; hence the suggestion that 
 they really indicate great canals to carry off the water 
 from the rapidly-melting snow and distribute it by irri- 
 gation channels over the adjacent land, which, being 
 rapidly covered Avith vegetation, causes the change of 
 color which renders them visible. These observations 
 were made by Mr. Pereival Lowell during the favorable 
 opposition, in 189-J:, at his observatory in Arizona, where 
 the exceptional purity of the atmosphere renders it pos- 
 sible almost constantly to observe details which are else- 
 where rarely visible. If future observations should 
 confirm the views as to the artificial nature of these 
 features of the surface of the planet which most nearly 
 resembles our earth, it must be considered to be the most 
 sensational astronomical discovery of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, and that which opens up the most exciting possibili- 
 ties as to communication with beings who are sufficiently 
 advanced to execute such widespread and gigantic irri- 
 gation works. 
 
 Saturn's Rings, and the Meteoritic Theory of the 
 Un iverse. 
 
 The ring around the planet Saturn was long supposed 
 to be single, and to be solid like the planet itself; but 
 with improved telescopes it was found to be double, and 
 with still finer instruments to consist of an indefinite 
 number of rings close together, one of them being very 
 obscure, as if formed of nebulous matter. In the year 
 1859, Clerk-Maxwell, by a profound mathematical in- 
 
98 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xi. 
 
 vestigation, proved that either solid or liquid rings would 
 be unstable, and would inevitably break up so as to form 
 a number of satellites; and he concluded that the rings 
 really consisted of a crowd of small bodies so near to- 
 gether as to appear like a solid mass; and as the appear- 
 ance of the rings, and some slight changes detected in 
 them, were in harmony with this view, it has been gen- 
 erally accepted. But quite recently the wonderful in- 
 strument, the spectroscope, has given the final demon- 
 stration that this theory is correct. If the rings are 
 solid, it is clear that a point on the outer edge must move 
 more rapidly than one on the inner edge; whereas, if 
 they consist of separate particles, each revolving inde- 
 pendently round the planet, then, in accordance with 
 the laws of all planetary motions, those forming the 
 inner side of the rings, being nearer to the planet, must 
 move much quicker than those on the outer side. As 
 already explained in Chapter VI., the spectroscope 
 enables us to measure motion in the line of sight — that 
 is, toward or away from us — of any heavenly bodies, 
 and by observing the outer extremities of the rings to 
 the right and left of the planet, where the motion is, of 
 course, in these two directions, it is found that the mo- 
 tion of the inner edge is considerably more rapid than 
 that of the outer edge, showing that those parts move 
 round the planet independently, and are therefore 
 formed of separate particles or small masses. These 
 observations were made by the American astronomer, 
 Professor James E. Keeler, in 1895, and are of extreme 
 delicacy; but that they are trustworthy is shown by the 
 fact that the resulting velocities are in accordance with 
 Kepler's third law, which determines the relative mo- 
 
CHAP. XI. ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 99 
 
 tions of all planetary bodies at varying distances from 
 the primary. 
 
 A still more important discovery is that which has 
 explained, by one consistent theory, the various phe- 
 nomena presented by aerolites, fireballs, and shooting or 
 falling stars, now generally classed as meteors and 
 meteorites; and this theory is found to have an impor- 
 tant bearing on the constitution of the solar system, and 
 perhaps even on that of the whole stellar universe. Al- 
 though there are records of the fall of solid stones from 
 the sky in the works of classical, Chinese, and European 
 authors, from 654 b. c. down to our times, while the 
 astronomer Gassendi himself witnessed the fall of a stone 
 weighing 59 lbs. in the year 1627, in the south of 
 France, yet the phenomenon was so rare, and so inex- 
 plicable, that it was often disbelieved. One philosopher 
 is reported to have disposed of the whole matter by say- 
 ing, " there are no stones in the sky, therefore none can 
 fall from it." But the evidence for such falls soon be- 
 came overwhelming, and their connection with fireballs 
 and shooting stars was also well established. One of the 
 most remarkable of modern meteors was that seen at 
 Aigle in Normandy, on April 26, 1803. About 1 p. m. 
 a brilliant fireball was seen traversing the air at great 
 speed. A violent explosion followed, apparently pro- 
 ceeding from a small lofty cloud. This was no doubt 
 the product of the explosion which would be visible long 
 before the sound was heard, and then came a perfect 
 shower of stones, nearly three thousand being picked up, 
 the largest weighing eight pounds. A still more ex- 
 traordinary meteor was seen on March 19, 1719, about 
 eight o'clock in the evening, in all parts of England, 
 
100 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xi 
 
 Scotland, and Ireland. In London it appeared like a 
 ball of fire as large as the moon; at Exeter the light was 
 like that of the sun. It was followed by a broad stream 
 of light, and burst with a report like that of a cannon, 
 with a great display of red sparks like a huge sky-rocket; 
 but as it was then over the sea, between Devonshire and 
 the coast of Brittany, its fragments were not recoverable. 
 Dr. Whiston, JSTewton's successor as professor of mathe- 
 matics at Cambridge, who published an account of it, 
 calculated its height over London as 51 miles, and over 
 Devonshire 39 miles. 
 
 Falling stars, sometimes seen singly, at other times in 
 considerable numbers, as Avell as the less frequent but 
 larger fireballs above described, appeared to be con- 
 nected phenomena, although little was really known 
 about them till the early part of this century, when they 
 began to be more carefully studied. By observations of 
 the same meteor or fireball at distant localities, its alti- 
 tude, and the velocity with which it moved, were ascer- 
 tained, and these were always found to be so great as to 
 show that these objects could not have a terrestrial 
 origin. It was soon observed that showers of falling- 
 stars occurred about the same time every year, with dis- 
 plays of great brilliancy at long intervals; and on these 
 occasions the meteors all appeared to radiate from cer- 
 tain definite points in the sky. Thus in ISTovember they 
 seemed to originate in the constellation Leo, and in 
 August in Perseus, while others apparently belong to 
 distinct constellations. The only way of explaining 
 these appearances seemed to be that there were streams 
 of small bodies travelling in elliptic orbits round the sun, 
 and that the earth crossed these orbits at fixed points 
 
ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 101 
 
 once a year. Then a number of these small bodies, 
 many of them perhaps no longer than pebbles or grains 
 of sand, coming into our atmosphere, became heated and 
 even vaporized by the friction due to their rapid planet- 
 ary motion, and appeared to us as shooting stars; while 
 larger masses, whose exterior alone became heated, either 
 exploded or fell entire as meteorites. The exceptional 
 displays of the November meteors at intervals of about 
 thirty-three years is due to the fact that the stream is 
 much denser in this part of its orbit, where the meteoric 
 matter may be slowly aggregating to form a planetary 
 body. 
 
 A large number of such meteor streams have now 
 been observed; but the most remarkable discovery is 
 that in some cases, and probably in all, comets form a 
 part of such meteoric streams. This has been proved by 
 showing that the orbits and times of revolution of cer- 
 tain comets coincide exactly with those of meteor 
 streams as independently observed. Thus, Tempel's 
 comet, seen in 1866, coincides with the November 
 meteors, or Leonids; Biela's comet, with the Androiin- 
 eda meteors; while the bright comet of 1862 coincides 
 with the August Perseids. Seventy such cases of the 
 association of comets and meteor streams are now 
 known; and Professor Lockyer has completed the proof 
 of the connection by showing that, when fragments of 
 meteoric stones are intensely heated in a vaciuun, they 
 afford a spectrum closely resembling those of comets. 
 Some meteors are visible every fine night, and it has 
 been calculated by Professor Newton of Yale College 
 that seven and a half millions enter the earth's atmos- 
 phere every day; and if we add to these the much 
 
102 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xi. 
 
 greater number that must escape observation, it is sup- 
 posed that the actual number may be several hundred 
 millions. Of course it is only by a kind of accident 
 that the orbit of our earth crosses any of these meteoric 
 streams, so that there are certainly a vast number, per- 
 haps thousands or even millions, of such streams in the 
 solar system, since some hundreds are either known or 
 suspected to cross our path. Taking into consideration 
 these numerous meteor-streams moving in elliptic orbits 
 round the sun, together with the vast number of stray 
 meteors, as it were, indicated by those that are seen 
 every day in the yeaj- and by the exceptionally large and 
 rare fireballs, we are led to the conclusion that the space 
 occupied by the solar system, instead of being almost 
 empty, as formerly supposed, is really full of solid bodies 
 varying in size from that of dust or sand-grains up to 
 huge masses a thousand times that of our earth. 
 
 The eight major planets are so remote from each other 
 that, if we represent the solar system as an open plain 
 two and a half miles in diameter, our earth will in due 
 proportion be shown by a pea, ]\lars by a large pin's 
 head, Jupiter by an orange, and Neptune on the extreme 
 outer edge by a largish plum. From any one of them 
 the nearest would be invisible to us unless brilliantly 
 illuminated, and however smooth and open was the 
 plain, we might walk across it again and again in every 
 direction, and with the exception of the two-foot ball in 
 the centre representing the sun, we should probably de- 
 clare it to be absolutely empty. Looking thus at the 
 solar system, the vast emptiness, the absurd dispropor- 
 tion of the sizes of the planets to the immense spaces 
 around and between them, was almost oppressive; and 
 
CHAP. XI. ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 103 
 
 even when we took account of the nebular hypothesis, 
 and tried to imagine a mass of elemental gaseous matter 
 occupying a sphere of the diameter of the orbit of Nep- 
 tune, gradually cooling and shrinking, leaving rings of 
 diffused matter behind it, which afterward broke up and 
 aggregated into the planets and satellites already known 
 to us, the hypothetical solution of the problem was 
 hardly satisfying, since it seemed difficult to understand 
 how so vast a plenum could be converted into an eqiially 
 vast vacuum, except for the few and remotely scattered 
 planetary systems as its sole relics. 
 
 But the study of the long-despised and misunderstood 
 meteorites and falling stars has entirely changed our 
 conceptions of that portion of the universe of which our 
 sun is the centre. We are now led to regard it as more 
 nearly approaching a plenum than a vacuiim. We 
 know that it is everywhere full of what may be termed 
 planetary and meteoric life — full of solid moving bodies 
 forming systems of various sizes and complexities from 
 the vast mass of Jupiter, with its five moons, down to 
 some of the minor planets a few miles in diameter, and 
 just large enough to become visible by reflected light; 
 and again, downward, of all lesser dimensions to the 
 mere dust-grains which only become visible when the 
 friction on entering our atmosphere with the great 
 velocities due to their planetary motion round the sun 
 ignites and sometimes, perhaps, dissipates them. 
 
 We here obtain a new conception of the possible 
 origin of tlae universe as we now see it, — a conception 
 which originated with Professor Tait, and has been 
 forcibly advocated by Lockyer and a few other astrono- 
 mers, — which is that both the solar system and the stellar 
 
104 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 universe have arisen from the aggregation of widely 
 diffused solid particles, molecules, or atoms, whose com- 
 ing together under the influence of gravitation produces 
 heat, incandescence, and sometimes elemental vaporiza- 
 tion, ratlier than from a primitive cosmic vapor from 
 which solid masses have been formed by cooling and con- 
 traction. Everywhere wc become aware of these solid 
 masses of various sizes occupying the spaces around us. 
 The rings of Saturn are composed of such solid particles 
 in a state of unusual condensation. The vast ring of the 
 minor planets indicates probably the existence there of 
 millions of smaller invisible bodies fonning a stream of 
 meteors, analogous to some of those which cross our 
 orbit, but which are composed of much smaller bodies 
 since none of them are independently visible. Then 
 we have the comets, consisting of a dense swarm of such 
 meteors, whose frequent collisions may produce the 
 luminous gases indicated by their spectra. Yet fiu'ther, 
 the strange zodiacal light, extending from the sun be- 
 yond the earth's orbit, is well explained as due to the 
 light reflected under favorable conditions from the 
 countless streams of meteors, ever increasing in density 
 as they approach the sun. 
 
 In its wider application to the stellar universe, the 
 same theory serves to explain phenomena once supposed 
 to be radically distinct. There is now known to be a 
 jierfect gradation from the faintest and least condensed 
 nebulfe to the most brilliant stars, and these are all ex- 
 plained, on what is termed the metedritic hypothesis, as 
 being different stages in the aggregation of meteoritic 
 matter everywhere and always going on. From the 
 faintest diffused nebulpe we pass to those which exhibit ?l 
 
ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 105 
 
 radial or spiral mode of condensation, and to others 
 which possess a dense nucleus like a comet; then we 
 have the compact discs called planetary nebulse, and 
 others which seem to be aggregated around one or more 
 bright stars. Recently it has been found that many 
 stars, — among others those of the Pleiades, — which ap- 
 pear as stars only in the most powerful telescopes, are 
 really nebulous stars wlivn photographed with very long 
 exposure under conditions which exhibit many thou- 
 sands of stars which no telescope can render visible. 
 And when these various bodies are examined with the 
 spectroscope, they are seen to have many features in 
 common, such as indicate dilferences in tempera tm-e and 
 consequent difference in the amount and character of the 
 luminous gases due to their greater or less condensation. 
 The nebulfe of various forms and intensity represent, 
 therefore, the early stages in the development of stars, 
 suns, and planetary systems out of diffused meteoritic 
 matter; while stars themselves are of various tempera- 
 tures, the heat increasing when the meteoritic matter is 
 most rapidly aggregating, and afterward cooling till 
 they become of so low a temperature as to cease to be 
 luminous to our vision, as is the case with the dark com- 
 panions of some of the spectroscopic double stars. 
 
 This conception of the meteoritic constitution of the 
 whole stellar uni\'erse is one of the gTandest achieve- 
 ments of the science of the nineteenth century. All 
 the other astronomical discoveries of the period (except 
 those gained through the spectroscope) are additions to 
 our knowledge of essentially the same nature as others 
 which preceded them ; but in this case we have a new and 
 comprehensive generalization, which links together a 
 
106 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. ii. 
 
 vast host of phenomena which, till quite recently, were 
 isolated or misunderstood. 
 
 Beginning with the meteoric masses which at con- 
 siderable intervals fall upon the earth, and the meteoric 
 or cosmic dust which in minute spherules is probably 
 always falling — since it is found abundantly in all the 
 deepest oceanic deposits far removed from continental 
 land — we have next the meteor streams with their at- 
 tendant comets, circling round the sun in vast numbers, 
 and increasing to such an extent in his vicinity that they 
 become visible as the zodiacal light; the planetoids, ever 
 increasing in recorded numbers and probably forming 
 the larger members of a vast meteor ring ; and the rings 
 of Saturn, now proved to be of the same meteoritic 
 nature. Then, passing on to the interstellar spaces, we 
 find the nebulae, which are but vast uncondensed meteor 
 swarms; the planetary nebulse and nebulous stars being 
 examples of greater condensation, leading on to the 
 myriads of tlie starry hosts, each one a sun heated by 
 the inward rush and titanic coUisions of countless 
 meteor-swarms. These suns, after reaching a maximum 
 of heat and light, slowly cool into darkness, imtil a col- 
 lision with other cosmic matter again heats the mass to 
 incandescence or even to vaporization — all this grand 
 series of phenomena, rising from dust particles on the 
 ocean bed to a million million of suns, comprehended, 
 and to some extent explained, by one of the simplest and 
 at first sight most inadequate of hypotheses — that of a 
 meteoritic origin of the material universe. 
 
 It has been objected that this theory is not so simple 
 as the old nebular hypothesis, and has no advantages 
 over it. But this is a mistake. The latter begins with 
 
CHAP. XI. ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 107 
 
 what we now see to be an impossible condition — that of 
 a universe in a state of vapor. For all matter, in the 
 absence of heat, is solid ; and the only sources of heat we 
 know of are, impact or friction, and chemical combina- 
 tion including electric action. Heat, therefore, in all 
 its degrees and manifestations, will necessarily arise from 
 diffused solid matter subject to gravitation, but it will 
 arise partially and locally, not universally; and we now 
 know that there are such varieties of temperature in the 
 stellar universe. We have also positive evidence of 
 solid matter everywhere, in an almost infinite gradation 
 of size and of temperature, from that amount of cold in 
 which no liquid, and perhaps no gas, can exist, up to 
 that amount of heat in which all the elements are vapor- 
 ized. We can conceive how, from diffused solid matter, 
 without heat, the actual condition of the universe may 
 have arisen; but we cannot conceive any previous condi- 
 tion which would result in the universal vaporization of 
 all matter which the nebular hypothesis presupposes. 
 
 But this grand meteoritic theory, like all possible 
 theories or speculations as to the origin of the cosmos, 
 only takes us one step backward, and then leaves us no 
 whit nearer to a real comprehension of the great insolu- 
 ble problem. For we ask whence came this inconceiv- 
 ably vast extension of meteoritic matter ? What was its 
 antecedent state? How did matter, at first presumably 
 simple or atomic, aggregate into those forms we know as 
 elements ? And even if we could get back to a universe 
 of primitive atoms, we should still be no nearer a com- 
 plete solution, for then would begin a new series of ques- 
 tions far more difficult to answer. We should begin to 
 seek after the origin of the Forces which caused the de- 
 
108 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xi. 
 
 velopment of atoms into matter and into worlds. 
 Whence the simplest cohesive forces? Whence the 
 chemical forces? And more mysterious than all, 
 whence the force of gravitation, infinite, unchangeable, 
 and at the very root of cosmic development? Be- 
 yond these problems again, and quite as essential and 
 insoluble, are the problems of the ether. What is the 
 ether, and wliat are its relations to matter? Whence 
 the forces that cause the ether to vibrate, and in the 
 various forms of heat, light, or electricity to be the 
 source of all change of form, all molecular motion, all 
 those infinite modifications in the states of matter that 
 alone seem to render possible the development of organ- 
 ized li\'ing forms? To all these questions we have no 
 definite answers, and i»rol)ably never shall have; but we 
 have at least one suggestive speculation, that of the vor- 
 tex-theory of matter. 
 
 According to this theory, the ether is an incom- 
 pressible frictionless fluid, and is the one and only sub- 
 stance of the universe. Matter is but a form of motion 
 of the ether. Atoms are minute vortices, or rapidly re- 
 volving portions of the ether, which, when once started 
 in this frictionless fluid, are eternal and indestructible. 
 A sufficient luimber (almost infinite) of these vortices, 
 of various dimensions and spinning with various veloci- 
 ties, and having progressive motions in every possible 
 direction like the molecules of a gas, will, it is suggested, 
 group themselves into various aggregations according 
 to similarities of size and motion, will thus produce 
 the elements, which elements will act upon each other 
 in the various modes of chemical combination, and 
 thus will arise all the forms of molecular matter. 
 
CHAP. XI. ASTRONOMY AND COSMIC THEORIES. 109 
 
 But the continued motions of these atoms and their 
 combinations will set up in the unmodified ether 
 the special vibrations of heat and electricity, which, 
 reacting on matter, will lead to that vast series of co- 
 ordinated changes we recognize as the laws and 
 phenomena of nature. Whether gravitation could 
 possibly arise from the initial impulse given to the ether 
 is doubtful; but in this vortex-theory, of which Lord 
 Kelvin is the chief exponent in this country, we have the 
 most important attempt yet made to get near to tlie be- 
 ginnings of the universe. It is, of course, essentially in- 
 conceivable, as are all fundamental conceptions. The 
 incompressible, frictionless, universal fluid is inconceiv- 
 able; the origin of its infinity of atomic vortex motions 
 is inconceivable; as are the translatory motions, the in- 
 finity of combinations, the complexity of chemical 
 actions, the productions of the varied kinds of ether- 
 vibrations, and of gravitative force; and when we have 
 fully grasped all these inconceivabilities there remains 
 the still greater inconceivability of how life, conscious- 
 ness, affection, intellect, arose from this infinite clash of 
 ethereal vortex-rings ! 
 
 The conception is, however, a grand one; and, to- 
 gether with the meteoritic hypothesis as to the immediate 
 antecedents of the visible universe, must rank among the 
 great intellectual achievements of our century. Yet 
 they bring us no nearer to the First-Cause, of this vast 
 cosmos in which we live; and most minds will feel that 
 we never can get nearer to it than in " the consciousness 
 of an Inscrutable Power manifested to us through all 
 phenomena," which Herbert Spencer considers to be the 
 logical and the utmost outcome of the most far-reaching 
 human science. 
 
CHAPTEK XII. 
 geology: the glacial epoch, and the antiquity 
 
 OF MAN. 
 
 The hills are shadows, and they flow 
 From form to form, and nothing stands ; 
 They melt like mist, the solid lands. 
 
 Like clouds they shiipe themselves and go. 
 
 — Tennyson. 
 
 With cunning hand he shapes the flint, 
 He carves the boue with strange device. 
 
 He splits the rebel rock by dint 
 Of effort — till one day there flies 
 
 A spark of fire from out the stone. 
 
 Fire, which shall make the world his own. 
 
 — Mathilde Blind. 
 
 The foundations of modern geology were laid, in tlie 
 latter part of the last century, by Werner, Hutton, and 
 William Smith, but most of the details and some of the 
 more important principles have been wholly worked out 
 during the present century. The great landmarks of its 
 progress can alone be referred to here, namely (1) the 
 establishment by Lyell of what has been termed the uni- 
 formitarian theory; (2) the proof of a recent glacial 
 epoch and the working out of its effects upon the earth's 
 surface; and (3) the discovery that man in the northern 
 hemisphere lived contemporaneously with many now ex- 
 tinct animals. 
 
 In the early part of the century, and so late as the year 
 1830, Cuvier's " Essay on the Theory of the Earth " 
 
 110 
 
cflAP. xii. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. Ill 
 
 held the field as the exponent of geological theory. A 
 fifth edition of the English translation appeared in 1827, 
 and a German translation so late as 1830. In this work 
 it was maintained that almost all geological phenomena 
 pointed to a state of the earth and of natural forces very- 
 different from what now exists. In the raised beds of 
 shells, in fractured rocks, in vertical stratification, we 
 were said to have proofs " that the surface of the globe 
 has been broken up by revolutions and catastrophes." 
 The differences in the character of adjacent stratified 
 deposits showed that there must have been various suc- 
 cessive irruptions of the sea over the land; and Cuvier 
 maintained that these irruptions and retreats of the sea 
 were not slow or gradual, " but that most of the catas- 
 trophes which have occasioned them have been sudden." 
 He urged that the sharp and bristling ridges and peaks 
 of the primitive mountains " are indications of the vio- 
 lent manner in which they have been elevated; " and he 
 concludes that " it is in vain we search among the powers 
 which now act at the surface of the earth for causes suffi- 
 cient to produce the revolutions and catastrophes, the 
 traces of which are exhibited in its crust." This theory 
 of convulsions and catastrophes held almost universal 
 sway within the memory of persons now living; for al- 
 though Hutton and Playfair had advanced far more 
 accurate views, they appear to have made little impres- 
 sion, while the great authority attached to Cuvier's name 
 carried all before it. 
 
 But in 1830, while Cuvier was at the height of his 
 fame, and his book was still being translated into foreign 
 languages, a hitherto unknown writer published the first 
 volume of a work which struck at the very roots of the 
 
112 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xii. 
 
 catastrophe theory, and demonstrated, by a vast array of 
 facts and the most cogent reasoning, that almost every 
 portion of it was more or less imaginary and in opposi- 
 tion to the plainest teachings of nature. The victory 
 was complete. From the date of the publication of the 
 " Principles of Geology " there were no more English 
 editions of " The Theory of the Earth." 
 
 Lyell's method was that of a constant appeal to the 
 processes of nature. Before asserting that certain re- 
 sults could not be due to existing causes he carefully ob- 
 served what those causes were now doing. He applied 
 to them the tests of accurate measurement, and he 
 showed that, taking into account the element of long- 
 continued action, they were, in almost every case, fully 
 adequate to explain the observed phenomena. He 
 showed that modern volcanoes had poured out equally 
 vast masses of melted rock, which had covered equally 
 large areas, with any ancient volcano; that strata were 
 now forming, comparable in extent and thickness with 
 any ancient strata ; that organic remains were being pre- 
 served in them, just as in the older formations; that 
 land was almost everywhere either rising or sinking, as 
 of old; that valleys were being excavated and mountains 
 worn away; that earthquake shocks were producing 
 faults in the rocks; that vegetation was now preparing 
 future coal-beds; that limestones, sandstones, meta- 
 morphic and igneous rocks were still being formed; and 
 that, given time, and the intermittent or continuous 
 action of the causes we can now trace in operation, all 
 the contortions and fractures of strata, all the ravines and 
 precipices, and every other modification of the earth's 
 crust supposed to imply the agency of sudden revolutions 
 
CHAP. XII. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 113 
 
 and violent catastrophes may be again and again pro- 
 duced. 
 
 During a period of more than forty years Sir Charles 
 Lyell continued to enlarge and improve his work, bring- 
 ing out eleven editions, the last of which was published 
 throe years before his death; and rarely has any scientific 
 work so completely justified its title, since it remains to 
 this day the best exposition of the " Principles of 
 Geology " — the foundation on which the science itself 
 must be and has been built. The disciples and followers 
 of Lyell have been termed " Uniformitarians," on ac- 
 count of their belief that the causes which produced the 
 phenomena manifested to us in the crust of the earth 
 are essentially of the same nature as those acting now. 
 And, as is often the case, the use of the term as a nick- 
 name has led to a misconception as to the views of those 
 to whom it is applied. A few words on this point are 
 therefore called for. 
 
 Modern objectors say that it is unphilosophical to 
 maintain that in our little experience of a few himdred, 
 or at most a few thousand, years, we can have witnessed 
 all forms and degrees of the action of natural forces ; that 
 we have no right to take the historical period as a fair 
 sample of all past geological ages; and that, as a mere 
 matter of probability, we ought to expect to find proofs 
 of greater earthquakes, more violent eruptions, more sud- 
 den upheavals, and more destructive floods, having 
 occurred during the vast eons of past time. Now this 
 argument is perfectly sound if limited to the occurrence 
 of extreme cases, but not if applied to averages. No 
 uniformitarian will deny the probabiHty of there having 
 been some greater convulsions in past geological ages 
 
114 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 than have ever been experienced during the historical 
 period. But modern convulsionists do not confine 
 themselves to this alone, but maintain that, as a rule, 
 all the great natural forces tending to modify the surface 
 of the earth were more powerful and acted on a larger 
 scale than they do now. On the ground of mere proba- 
 bility, however, we have no right to assume a diminution 
 rather than an increase of natural forces in recent times, 
 unless there is some proof that these forces have dimin- 
 ished. Sir Charles Lyell shows that the cases adduced 
 as indicating greater forces in the past are fallacious, and 
 his doctrine is simply one of real as against imaginary 
 forces. 
 
 But our modern objectors have another argument, 
 founded upon the admitted fact that the earth has cooled 
 and is slowly cooling, and was probably once in a molten 
 condition. They urge that in early geological times, 
 when the earth was hotter, the igneous, aqueous, and 
 aerial forces were necessarily greater, and would pro- 
 duce more rapid changes and greater convulsions .than 
 now. This is a i^iu-ely theoretical conclusion, by no 
 means sure, and perhaps the very reverse of what really 
 occurred. There are two reasons for this belief, which 
 may be very briefly stated. After the earth's crust was 
 once fonned it cooled very slowly, and the crust became 
 very gradually thicker. So far as the action of the 
 molten interior on the crust may have produced convul- 
 sions they should become not less, but more violent as 
 the crust becomes thicker. With a thin crust any inter- 
 nal tension will be more frequently relieved by fracture 
 or bending, and the resulting disturbances will be less 
 violent J but as the crust becomes thicker, internal ten- 
 
CHAP. xu. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 115 
 
 sions will accumulate, and when relieved by fracture the 
 disturbance will be more violent. 
 
 As regards storms and other aerial disturbances, these 
 also would probably be less violent when the tempera- 
 ture of the whole surface was more uniform as well as 
 warmer, and the atmosphere consequently so full of 
 vapor as to prevent the sun's rays from producing the 
 great inequalities of temperature that now prevail. It 
 is these inequalities that produce the great aerial dis- 
 turbances of our era, which arise from the heated sur- 
 faces of the bare plains and deserts of the subtropical 
 and warm temperate belts. In the equatorial belt 
 (10° each side of the equator), where the heat is more 
 uniform and the surface generally well clothed 
 with vegetation, tornadoes and hurricanes are almost 
 unknown. 
 
 There remains only the action of the tides upon coasts 
 and estuaries, which may have been greater in early geo- 
 logical times, if, as is supposed, the moon was then con- 
 siderably nearer to the earth than it is now. But this is 
 a comparatively unimportant matter as regards geologi- 
 cal convulsions, because its maximum effects recur at 
 short intervals and with great regularity, so that both 
 vegetation and the higher forms of animal life would 
 necessarily be limited to the areas which were beyond its 
 influence. 
 
 It thus appears that, so far from there being any 
 theoretical necessity for greater violence of natural 
 forces in early geological times, there are some weighty 
 reasons why the opposite should have been the case; 
 while all the evidence furnished by the rocks themselves, 
 and by the contours of the earth's surface, are in favor 
 
116 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xu. 
 
 of a general uniformity, with, of course, considerable 
 local variability. 
 
 It is interesting to note the very different explanations 
 of the commonest features of the earth's surface given 
 by the old and by the new theories. In every mountain 
 region of the globe deep valleys, narrow ravines, and lofty 
 precipices are of common occurrence, and these were, by 
 the old school, almost always explained as being due to 
 convulsions of nature. In ravines, we were taught that 
 the rocks had been " torn asunder," while the mountains 
 and the precipices were indications of " sudden fractures 
 and upheavals of the earth's crust." On the new theory, 
 these phenomena are found to be almost wholly due to 
 the slow action of the most familiar every-day causes, 
 such as rain, snow, frost, and wind, with rivers, streams, 
 and every form of running water, acting upon rocks of 
 varying hardness, permeability, and solubility. Every 
 shower of rain falling upon steep hillsides or gentle 
 slopes, while partially absorbed, to a large extent runs 
 over the surface, carrying solid matter from higher to 
 lower levels. Every muddy stream or flooded river shows 
 the effect of this action. Day and night, month after 
 montli, year after year, this denudation goes on, and its 
 cumulative effects are enormous. The material is sup- 
 plied from the solid rocks, fractured and decomposed by 
 the agency of snow and frost or by mere vaiiations of 
 temperatm'e, and jirimarily by those interior earth- 
 movements wliicli are continually cleaving, Assuring, and 
 faulting the solid strata, and thus giving the superficial 
 causes of denudation facilities for action. The amount 
 and rate of this superficial erosion and denudation of the 
 earth's surface can be determined by the quantity of 
 
GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 117 
 
 solid matter carried down by the rivers to the sea. 
 This has been measured with considerable accuracy for 
 several important rivers; and by comparing the quantity 
 of matter, both in suspension and solution, with the area 
 of the river basin, we know exactly the average amount 
 of lowering of the whole surface per annum. It has 
 thus been calculated that 
 
 The Mississippi removes one foot of the surface of 
 
 
 its basin in ..... . 
 
 6000 years 
 
 " Ganges 
 
 2358 " 
 
 " Hoang Ho *' " " " 
 
 1464 " 
 
 " Rlione 
 
 1528 " 
 
 " Danube " " " " 
 
 6846 " 
 
 " Po 
 
 729 •• 
 
 " Nith 
 
 4723 " 
 
 The average of these rivers gives us one foot as the 
 lowering of the land by sub-aerial denudation in 3000 
 years, or a thousand feet in three million years; but as 
 Europe has a mean altitude of less than a thousand feet, 
 it follows that, at the present rate of denudation, the 
 whole of Europe would be reduced to nearly the sea- 
 level in about three million years. Before this method 
 of measuring the rate of the lowering of continents was 
 hit upon by Mr. Alfred Tylor in 1853, no one imagined 
 that it was anything like so rapid ; and, as a million years 
 is certainly a short period as compared with the whole 
 geological record, it is clear that elevation must, on the 
 whole, have always kept pace with the two lowering 
 agencies — sinking and denudation. Again, as in every 
 continent the areas occupied by plains and lowlands, 
 where denudation is comparatively slow, are large as 
 compared with the mountain areas, where all the denud- 
 ing agencies are most powerful, it is probable that most 
 
118 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 mountain ranges are being lowered at perhaps ten times 
 the above average rate, and many mountain peaks and 
 ridges perhaps a hundred times. 
 
 Examples of the rapidity of denudation as compared 
 with earth-movements are to be found everywhere. In 
 disturbed regions, faults of many hundreds, and some- 
 times even thousands of feet, are not uncommon; yet 
 there is often no inequality on the surface, indicating 
 that the dislocation of strata has been caused by small 
 and often-repeated movements, at such intervals that 
 denudation has been able to remove the elevated portion 
 as it arose. Again, when the strata are bent into great 
 folds or undulations, it is only rarely that the tops of the 
 folds correspond to ridges and the depressions to valleys. 
 Frequently the reverse is the case, a valley running 
 along the anticlinal line or structural ridge, while the 
 synclinal or structural hollow forms a mountain top; 
 while, in other cases, valleys cut across these structural 
 features, with little or no regard to them. This results 
 from the fact that it is not mountains or mountain ranges, 
 as we see them, which have been raised by internal 
 forces, but a considerable area, already perhaps much 
 disturbed and dislocated by earth-movements, has been 
 slowly raised till it became a kind of table-land. From 
 its first elevation above the sea, however, it would have 
 been exposed to rainfall, and the water, flowing off in the 
 direction of least resistance, would have formed a num- 
 ber of channels radiating from the highest portion, and 
 thus establishing the first outlines of a system of valleys, 
 which go on deepening as the land goes on rising, often 
 quite irrespective of the nature of the rocks beneath. 
 This explains the close resemblance in the general ar- 
 
CHAP. XII- GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 119 
 
 rangement of A'alleys in all high regions, as well as the 
 very common phenomenon of a river crossing the main 
 range of a mountain system by a deep gorge; for this 
 merely shows that what is now the highest part of the 
 range was at first lower than that where the river has its 
 source, but has become higher by the more rapid degra- 
 dation of the lateral ranges, owing to their being formed 
 of rock which is more easily disintegrated. The various 
 peculiarities of open valley and narrow gorge, of sloping 
 mountain side or lofty precipice, of rivers cutting across 
 hills, as in the South Downs and at Clifton, when open 
 plains by which they might apparently have reached the 
 sea are near at hand, may be all explained as the results 
 of those simple cavises which are everywhere in action 
 around us. It was Sir Charles Lyell who first convinced 
 the whole scientific world of the efficacy of these familiar 
 agents; and the secure establishment of this doctrine 
 constitutes one of the great philosophical landmarks of 
 the nineteenth century. 
 
 The Glacial Epoch. 
 
 The proof of the recent occurrence in the north 
 temperate zone of a glacial epoch, during which large 
 portions of Europe and Xorth America were buried in 
 ice, may, from one point of view, be thought to prove 
 that other agents than those now in operation have acted 
 in past ages, and thus to disprove the main assumption 
 of the uniformitarians. But, on the other hand, its 
 existence has been demonstrated by those very methods 
 which Sir Charles Lyell advocated — the accurate obser- 
 vation of what nature is doing now; while an ice age 
 
130 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xii. 
 
 really exists at the present time in Greenland, in the 
 same latitude as nearly the whole of Sweden and Nor- 
 way, Avhich enjoy a comparatively mild climate. 
 
 The first clear statement of the evidence for a former 
 ice age was given, in 1822, by a Swiss engineer named 
 Venetz. He pointed out that, where the existing 
 glaciers have retreated, the rocks wdiich they had cov- 
 ered are often rounded, smoothed, and polished, or 
 grooved and striated in the direction of the glacier's mo- 
 tion; and that, far away from any existing glaciers, there 
 were to be seen rocks similarly roimded, polished, and 
 striated; while there also existed old moraine heaps 
 exactly similar to those formed at present ; and that these 
 phenomena extended as far as the Jura range, on the 
 flanks of which there were numbers of huge blocks of 
 stone, of a kind not found in those mountains but exactly 
 similar to the ancient rocks of the main Alpine chain. 
 Hence, he concluded that glaciers formerly extended 
 down the Rhone valley as far as the Jura, and there de- 
 posited those erratic blocks, the presence of which had 
 puzzled all former observers. 
 
 Soon afterward, Charpentier and Agassiz devoted 
 themselves to the study of the records left by the ancient 
 glaciers; and from that time to the present a band of 
 energetic workers in every part of the world have, by 
 minute observation and reasoning, established the fact 
 of the extension of glaciers, or ice-sheets, over a large 
 portion of the north temperate zone; and have also de- 
 termined the direction of their motion and the thickness 
 of the ice in various parts of their course. These con- 
 clusions are now admitted by every geologist who has de- 
 voted himself to the subject, and are embodied in the 
 
CHAP. M. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 121 
 
 various official geological surveys of the chief civilized 
 countries; and as they constitute one of the most re- 
 markable chapters in the past history of the globe, and 
 especially as this great change of climate occurred dur- 
 ing the period of man's existence on the earth, a brief 
 sketch of the facts must be here given. 
 
 There are four main groups of phenomena which 
 demonstrate the former existence of glaciers in areas 
 where they are now absent: (1) Moraines, and glacial 
 drifts or gravels; (2) Smoothed, rounded, or planed 
 rocks; (3) Striae, grooves, and furrows on rock-surfaces; 
 (4) Erratics and perched blocks. 
 
 (1) Moraines are formed by all existing glaciers, con- 
 sisting of the earth and rocks which fall upon the ice- 
 rivers from the sides of the valleys through which they 
 flow. The slow motion of the glacier cai-ries these down 
 with it, and they are deposited in great heaps where it 
 melts. In some glaciers where the tributary valleys are 
 numerous and the debris that falls upon the ice is abun- 
 dant, the whole of the lower part of the glacier for many 
 miles is so buried in it that the surface of the ice cannot 
 be seen, and in these cases there will be a continuous 
 moraine formed across the valley where the glacier ter- 
 minates. The characteristics of moraines are, that they 
 consist of varied materials, earth, gravel, and rocks of 
 various sizes intermingled confusedly; and they often 
 form mounds or ridges completely across a valley, except 
 where the stream passes through it, while in other cases 
 they extend laterally along the slopes of the hillsides, 
 where, owing to the form of the valley, the glacier has 
 shrunk laterally and left its lateral moraine behind it. 
 In many cases huge blocks of rock rest on the very sum- 
 
123 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xii. 
 
 mit of a moraine, or, in the case of lateral moraines, on 
 the very edge of a precipice in positions where no known 
 agency but ice coiild have deposited them. These are 
 called " perched blocks." Drifts or glacial gravels arc 
 deposits of material similar to that forming the moraines, 
 but spread widely over districts which have formerly 
 been buried in ice. These are often partially formed of 
 stiff clay, in which are embedded quantities of smoothed 
 and striated stones; but the great characteristic of all 
 these ice-products is that the materials are not stratified, 
 — that is, sorted according to their fineness or coarseness, 
 as is always the case when deposited by water, — but are 
 mingled confusedly together, the large stones being 
 scattered all through the mass, and usually being quite 
 as abundant at the top as at the bottom of the deposit. 
 Such deposits are to be found all over the north and 
 northwest of our islands, and are often well exhibited in 
 railway cuttings ; and wherever they are well developed, 
 and the materials of which they consist differ from those 
 forming the underlying rocks, they are an almost in- 
 fallible indication of the former existence of a glacier or 
 ice-sheet. 
 
 (2) The smoothed and rounded rocks called in Switzer- 
 land roches moutonnees, from their resemblance at a dis- 
 tance to recumbent sheep, are present in almost all 
 recently glaciated mountainous countries, especially 
 where the rocks are very hard. They are to be seen in 
 all the higher valleys of Wales, the Lake District, and 
 Scotland, and on examination are found to consist often 
 of the hardest and toughest rocks. In other cases the 
 rock forming the bed of the valley is found to be planed 
 off smooth, even when it consists of hard crystalline 
 
oHAP.xii. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 123 
 
 strata thrown up at a high angle, and which naturally 
 weathers into a jagged or ridged surface. 
 
 (3) The smoothed rocks are often found to he covered 
 with numerous striae, deep grooves, or huge flutings, and 
 these are almost always in one direction, which is that of 
 the course of the glacier. They may often he traced in 
 the same direction for miles, and do not change in har- 
 mony with the lesser inequalities of the valley, as they 
 would certainly do had they been formed by water 
 action. These strise and smoothed rocks are often fotind 
 hundreds or even thousands of feet above the floor of the 
 valley, and in many cases a definite line can be traced, 
 above which the rocks are rugged and jagged, while be- 
 low it they are more or less rounded, smooth, or polished. 
 
 (4) Erratic blocks are among the most widespread and 
 remarkable indications of glacial action, and they were 
 the first that attracted the attention of men of science. 
 The great plains of Denmark, Prussia, North Germany, 
 and Russia are strewn with large masses of granite and 
 hard metamorphic rocks, and these rest either on glacial 
 drift or on quite diiferent rocks of Secondary or Ter- 
 tiary age. In parts of ISTorth Germany they are so abun- 
 dant as to hide the natural surface, and they are often 
 piled up in irregular heaps forming hills of granite 
 boulders covered with forests of pine, birch, and juniper. 
 Many of these blocks are more than a thoixsand tons' 
 weight, and almost all of them can be traced to the 
 mountains of Scandinavia as their source. Many of the 
 largest blocks have been carried furthest from the parent 
 rock — a fact which is conclusive against their having 
 been brought to their present position by the action of 
 floods. 
 
124 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chai>. xn. 
 
 The most interesting and instructive erratic blocks are 
 those found upon the slopes of the Jura, because they 
 have been most carefully studied by Swiss and French 
 geologists, and have all been traced to their sources in 
 the Alpine chain. The Jura mountains consist wholly 
 of Secondary limestones, and are situated opposite to the 
 Bernese Alps, at a distance of about fifty miles. Along 
 their slopes for a distance of a hundred miles, and ex- 
 tending from their base to a height of 2000 feet above 
 the Lake of ISTeuchatel, are great numbers of rocks, some 
 of them as large as houses, and always quite different 
 from that of which the Jura range is formed. These 
 have all been traced to their parent rocks in various parts 
 of the course of the old glacier of the Rhone, and, what 
 is even more remarkable, their distribution is such as to 
 prove that they were conveyed hj a glacier and not by 
 floating ice during a period of submergence. The rocks 
 and other debris that fall upon a glacier from the two 
 sides of its main valley form distinct moraines upon its 
 surface, and however far the glacier may flow, and how- 
 ever much it may spread out where the valley widens, 
 they preserve their relative position so that whenever 
 they are deposited by the melting of the glacier those 
 that came from the north side of the valley will remain 
 completely separated from those which came from the 
 south side. It was this fact which con^anced Sir Charles 
 Lyell that the theory of floating ice, which he had first 
 adopted, would not explain the distribution of the er- 
 ratics, and he lias given in his " Antiquity of Man " (4th 
 ed., p. 344) a map showing the course of the blocks as 
 they were conveyed on the surface of the glacier to their 
 several destinations. Other blocks are found on the 
 
CBAP.xit. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 125 
 
 lower slopes of the Alpine chain toward Bern on one 
 side and Geneva on the other, while the French geolo- 
 gists have traced them down the Rhone valley seventy 
 miles from Geneva, and also more than twenty miles 
 west of the Jura, thus proving that at the lowest portion 
 of that chain the glacier flowed completely over it. In 
 all these cases the blocks can be traced to a source cor- 
 responding to their position on the theory of glacier 
 action. Some of these rocks have been carried consider- 
 ably more than 200 miles, proving that the old glacier 
 of the Rhone extended to this enormous distance from its 
 source. 
 
 In our own islands and in North America these va- 
 rious classes of evidence have been carefully studied, the 
 direction of the glacial strise everywhere ascertained, 
 and all the more remarkable erratic blocks traced to 
 their sources, with the result that the extent and thick- 
 ness of the various glaciers and ice-sheets are well de- 
 termined and the direction of motion of the ice ascer- 
 tained. The conclusions arrived at are very extraor- 
 dinary, and must be briefly indicated. 
 
 In Great Britain, during the earlier and later phases 
 of the ice age, all the mountains of Scotland, the Lake 
 District, and Wales produced their own glaciers, which 
 flowed down to the sea. But at the time of the culmi- 
 nation of the Glacial Epoch the Scandinavian ice-sheet 
 extended on the southeast till it filled up the Baltic Sea 
 and spread over the plains of northwestern Europe, and 
 also filled up the North Sea, joining the glaciers of Scot- 
 land, forming with them a continuous ice-sheet from 
 which the highest mountains alone protruded. At the 
 same time this Scotch ice-sheet extended into the Irish 
 
126 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xn. 
 
 Sea, and united with the glaciers of the Lake District, 
 Wales, and Ireland till almost continuous ice-sheets en- 
 veloped those countries also. Glacial striaj are found up 
 to a height of 3500 feet in Scotland and 2500 feet in the 
 Lake District and in Ireland; while the Isle of ]\ran was 
 completely overflowed, as shown Ly glacial striae on the 
 summit of its loftiest mountains. Erratics from Scan- 
 dinavia are found in great quantities on Flamborough 
 Head, mixed with others from the Lake District and 
 Galloway, showing that two ice-streams met here from 
 opposite directions. Erratics from Scotland are also 
 found in the Lake District, in North "Wales, in the Isle 
 of ]Man, and in Ireland, from which the direction of the 
 moving ice can be determined. Great numbers of local 
 rocks have also been carried into places far from their 
 origin, and in every case this displacement is in the 
 direction of the flow of the ice as ascertained by the 
 other evidence — never in the opposite direction. Each 
 great mountain area had, however, its own centre of local 
 dispersal, depending upon the position of greatest thick- 
 ness of the ice-sheet, which was not necessarily that of 
 the highest mountains, but was approximately the centre 
 of the main area of glaciation. Thus the centre of the 
 JSTorth AVales ice-sheet was not at Snowdon, but over the 
 Arenig mountains, which thus became a local centre of 
 dispersal of erratics. In Ireland, the mountains being 
 placed around the coasts, the great central plain became 
 filled with ice which, continually accumulating, formed 
 a huge dome of ice whose outward pressure caused mo- 
 tion in all directions till checked by the opposing motion 
 of the great Scandinavian ice-sheet. This strange fact 
 has been demonstrated by the work of the Irish Geo- 
 
cHAP.sii. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 127 
 
 logical Survey and by many local geologists, and is uni- 
 versally accepted by all who have studied the evidence. 
 The great outlines of the phenomena of the ice age in 
 our islands are now as thoroughly well established as any 
 of the admitted conclusions of geological science. In 
 our own country the ice extended more or less com- 
 pletely over the whole of the midland counties and as 
 far south as the Thames Valley. 
 
 When we cross the Atlantic the phenomena are 
 equally remarkable. The whole of the northeastern 
 United States and Canada were also buried in an ice- 
 sheet of enormous thickness and extent. It came south- 
 ward as far as New York, and inland, in an irregular 
 line, by Cincinnati, to St. Louis on the Mississippi. The 
 whole of the region to the north of this line is covered 
 with a deposit of drift, often of enormous thickness, 
 while embedded in the drift, or scattered over its surface, 
 are numbers of blocks and rock-masses, often formed of 
 materials quite foreign to the bed-rock of the district. 
 These erratics have in many eases been traced to their 
 sources, sometimes 600 miles away, and the study of 
 these, and of the numerous grooved and striated rocks, 
 show that the centre of dispersal was far north of the 
 Alleghanies and its outliers, and, as in the case of Ire- 
 land, must have consisted of a huge dome of ice situated 
 over the plateau to the north of the Great Lakes, in what 
 must have been an area of great snow-fall combined with 
 a very low temperature. The maximum thickness of 
 this great ice-sheet must have been at least a mile over a 
 considerable portion of its area, as glacial deposits have 
 been found on the summit of Mount Washington at an 
 altitude of nearly 6000 feet, and the centre of motion 
 
128 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xa 
 
 was a considerable distance to the northwest, where it 
 must have reached a still greater altitude. 
 
 The complete similarity of the conclusions reached by 
 four different sets of observers in four different areas — 
 Switzerland, northwestern Europe, the British Isles, and 
 North America — after fifty years of continuous research, 
 and after every other less startling theory had been put 
 forth and rejected as wholly inconsistent with the phe- 
 nomena to be explained, renders it as certain as any 
 conclusion from indirect evidence can be, that a large por- 
 tion of the north temperate zone, now enjoying a favor- 
 able climate and occupied by the most civilized nations 
 of the world, was, at a very recent epoch, geologically 
 speaking, completely buried in ice, just as Greenland is 
 now., How recently the ice has passed away is shown 
 by the perfect preservation of innumerable moraines, 
 perched blocks, erratics, and glaciated rock-surfaces, 
 showing that but little denudation has occui-red to 
 modify the surface; while undoubted relics of man 
 found in glacial or interglacial deposits prove that it 
 occurred during the human period. It is clear that man 
 could not have lived in any area while it was actually 
 covered by the ice-sheet, while any indications of his 
 presence at an earlier period would almost certainly be 
 destroyed by the enormous abrading and grinding power 
 of the ice. 
 
 Besides the areas above referred to, there are wide- 
 spread indications of glaciation in parts of the world 
 where a temperate climate now prevails. In the Pyre- 
 nees, Caucasus, Lebanon, and Himalayas glacial mo- 
 raines are found far below the lower limits they now at- 
 tain. In the Southern Hemisphere similar indications 
 
CHAP. XII. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 139 
 
 are found in New Zealand, Tasmania, and the south- 
 ern portion of the Andes; hut whether this cohl period 
 was coincident with that of the Northern Iloniisphere 
 we have at present no means of determining, nor even 
 whether they were coincident among themselves, since 
 it is quite conceivable that they may have been due to 
 local causes, such as greater elevation of the land, and 
 not to any general cause acting throughout the south 
 temperate zone. 
 
 In the north temperate zone, however, the phenomena 
 are so widesjiread and so similar in character, with only 
 such modifications as are readily explained by proximity 
 to, or remoteness from, the ocean, that we are almost sure 
 they must have been simultaneous, and have been due to 
 the same general causes, though perhaps modified by 
 local changes in altitude and consequent modification of 
 winds or ocean-currents. The time that has elapsed 
 since the glaciation of the Northern Hemisphere passed 
 away is, geologically, very small indeed, and has been 
 variously estimated at from 20,000 to 100,000 years. 
 At present the smaller period is most favored by geolo- 
 gists, but the duration of the ice age itself, including 
 probably one or more inter-glacial mild periods, is ad- 
 mitted to be much longer, and probably to approach the 
 higher figure above given. 
 
 The undoubted fact, however, that a large part of the 
 north temperate zone has been recently subjected to so 
 marvellous a change of climate, is of immense interest 
 from many points of view. It teaches us in an impres- 
 sive way how delicate is the balance of forces which ren- 
 ders what are now the most densely peopled areas habit- 
 able by man. We can hardly suppose that even the 
 
130 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xn. 
 
 tremendously severe ice age of which we have evidence 
 is the utmost that can possibly occur; and, on the other 
 hand, wo may anticipate that the condition of things 
 which in earlier geological times rendered even the polar 
 regions adapted for a luxuriant woody vegetation may 
 again recur, and thus vastly extend the area of our globe 
 which is adapted to support human life in abundance and 
 comfort. In the endeavor to account for the change of 
 climate and of physical geography which brought about 
 so vast a change, and then, after a period certainly ap- 
 proaching, and perhaps greatly exceeding, a hundred 
 thousand years, caused it to pass away, some of the most 
 acute and powerful intellects of our day have exerted 
 their ingenuity; but, so far as obtaining general accept- 
 ance for the views of any one of them, altogether in vain. 
 There seems reason to believe, however, that the problem 
 is not an insoluble one; and when the true cause is 
 reached, it will probably carry with it the long-sought 
 datum from which to calculate with some rough degree 
 of accuracy the. duration of geological periods. But, 
 whether we can solve the problem of its cause or no, the 
 demonstration of the recent occurrence of a Glacial 
 EjDOcli or Great Tee Age, with the determination of its 
 main features over the Northern Hemisphere, Avill ever 
 rank as one of the great scientific achievements of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 The Antiquity of Man. 
 
 Following the general acceptance of a glacial epoch 
 by about twenty years, but to some extent connected 
 with it, came the recognition that man had existed in 
 Northern Europe along with numerous animals which 
 
CHAP. XII. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 131 
 
 no longer live there — the mammoth, the woolly rhi- 
 noceros, the wild horse, the cave-bear, the lion, the sabre- 
 toothed tiger, and many others — and that he had left be- 
 hind him, in an abundance of rude flint implements, the 
 record of his presence. Before that time geologists, as 
 well as the whole educated world, had accepted the 
 dogma that man only appeared upon the earth when 
 both its physical features and its animal and vegetable 
 forms were exactly as we find them to-day; and this be- 
 lief, resting solely on negative evidence, was so strongly 
 and irrationally maintained that the earlier discoveries 
 could not get a hearing. A careful but enthusiastic 
 French observer, M. Boucher de Perthes, had for many 
 years collected with his own hands, from the great de- 
 posits of old river gravels in the valley of the Somme 
 near Amiens, abundance of large and well-formed flint 
 implements. In 1847 he published an account of them, 
 but nobody believed his statements, till, ten years later, 
 Dr. Falconer, and shortly afterward. Professor Prest- 
 wich and Mr. John Evans, examined the collections and 
 the places where they were found, and were at once con- 
 vinced of their importance; and their testimony led to 
 the general acceptance of the doctrine of the great an- 
 tiquity of the human race. From that time researches 
 on this subject have been carried on by many earnest 
 iitudents, and have opened up a number of altogether 
 new chapters in human history. 
 
 So soon as the main facts were established, many old 
 records of similar discoveries were called to mind, all of 
 which had been ignored or explained away on account of 
 the strong prepossession in favor of the very recent 
 origin of man. In 1715 flint weapons had been found 
 
133 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xii. 
 
 in excavations near Gray's Inn Lane, along with the 
 skeleton of an elephant. In 1800 another discovery 
 was made in Suffolk of flint weapons and the remains of 
 extinct animals in the same deposits. In 1825 Mr. 
 McEnery, of Torquay, discovered worked flints along 
 with the bones and teeth of extinct animals in Kent's 
 cavern. In 1840 a good geologist confirmed these dis- 
 coveries, and sent an account of them to the Geological 
 Society of London, but the paper was rejected as being 
 too improbable for publication! All these discoveries 
 were laughed at or explained away, as the glacial strise 
 and grooves so beautifully exhibited in the Vale of Llan- 
 berris were at first endeavored to be explained as the 
 wheel-ruts caused by the chariots of the ancient Britons! 
 These, combined with numerous other cases of the denial 
 of facts on a priori grounds, have led me to the conclu- 
 sion that, whenever the scientific men of any age disbe- 
 lieve other men's careful observations without inquiry, 
 the scientific men are always wrong. 
 
 Even after these evidences of man's great antiquity 
 were admitted, strenuous efforts were made to minimize 
 the time as measured by years; and it was maintained 
 that man, although undoubtedly old, was entirely post- 
 glacial. But evidence has been steadily accumulating 
 of his existence at the time of the glacial epoch, and 
 even before it; while two discoveries of recent date seem 
 to carry back his age far into pre-glacial times. These 
 are, first, the human cranium, bones, and works of art 
 which have been found more than a hundred feet deep 
 in the gold-bearing gravels of California, associated with 
 abundant vegetable remains of extinct species, and over- 
 laid by four successive lava streams from long extinct 
 
Ap.in. GEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. 133 
 
 olcanoes. The other case is that of rude stone imple- 
 lents discovered by a geologist of the Indian Survey in 
 lurma in deposits which are admitted to be of at least 
 'liocene age. In both these cases the evidence is dis- 
 uted by some geologists, who seem to think that there is 
 )mething unscientific, or even wrong, in admitting evi- 
 ence that would prove the Pliocene age of any other 
 nimal to be equally valid in the case of man. There 
 i assumed to be a great improbability of his existence 
 arlier than the very end of the Tertiary epoch. But 
 11 the indications drawn from his relations to the anthro- 
 loid apes point to an origin far back in Tertiary time, 
 i'or each one of the great apes — the gorilla, the chim- 
 lanzee, the orang, and even the gibbon — resemble man 
 CL certain features more than do their allies, while in 
 ither points they are less like him. Now, if man has 
 leen developed from a lower animal form, we must seek 
 lis ancestors not in the direct line between him and any 
 (f the apes, but in a hue toward a common ancestor to 
 hem all; and this common ancestor must certainly date 
 )ack to the early part of the Tertiary epoch, because in 
 he Miocene period anthropoid apes not very different 
 ;rom living forms have been found fossil. 
 
 There is therefore no improbability whatever in the 
 existence of man in the later portions of the Tertiary 
 )eriod, and we have no right, scientifically, to treat any 
 ividence for his existence in any other way than the evi- 
 lence for the existence of other animal types. 
 
 It has been argued by some writers that, as no other 
 iving species of mammal goes back farther than the 
 STewer Pliocene, therefore man is probably no older. 
 3ut it is forgotten that the difference of man from the 
 
134 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. in. 
 
 apes is not only specific but at least of generic or of 
 family rank, while some naturalists place him even in a 
 separate order of mammalia. Besides the erect posture 
 and free hands, with all the details of anatomical struc- 
 ture which these peculiarities imply, the great develop- 
 ment of his brain pre-eminently distinguishes him. We 
 may suppose, therefore, that when he had- reached the 
 erect form, and possessed all the external appearance of 
 man, his brain still remained undeveloped, and the time 
 occupied by this development was not improbably equal 
 to that required for the specific modification of the lower 
 mammalia. It is often forgotten that so soon as man 
 used fire and made weapons, all further useful modifi- 
 cation would be in the direction of increased brain 
 power, by which he was able to siicceed both in his 
 struggle against the elements and with the lower ani- 
 mals. There is therefore no improbability in finding 
 the remains or the implements of a low type of man in 
 the early Pliocene period. 
 
 The certainty that man coexisted with many now ex- 
 tinct animals, and the probability of our discovering his 
 remains in undoubted Tertiary strata, constitutes an 
 immense advance on the knowledge and beliefs of our 
 forefathers, and must therefore rank among the promi- 
 nent features in the scientific progress of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 EVOLUTION AND NATURAL SELECTION. 
 
 Enkindled in the mystic dark, 
 
 Life built herself a myriad forms, 
 And, flashing its electric spark. 
 
 Through films, and cells, and pulps, and worms. 
 Flew shuttlewise above, beneath. 
 Weaving the Tveb of life and death. 
 
 — Mathilde Blind. 
 
 The world moves on in singing harmony — 
 Her steps of eon length; from primal cloud. 
 First through her realms old Chaos calls aloud; 
 
 Then, splashing in the Mesozoic sea. 
 
 Huge heralds of the beauty yet to be, 
 Her saurian monsters rise; they pass away, 
 And lo! the glories of a better day. 
 
 And man, the God-withiu, not fully free. 
 
 — American Fabrian. 
 
 We now approach the subject which, in popular esti- 
 nation, and perhaps in real importance, may be held to 
 )e the great scientific work of the nineteenth century — 
 he establishment of the general theory of evolution, by 
 neans of the special theory of the development of the 
 irganic world through the struggle for existence and its 
 lecessary outcome, Natural Selection. Although in 
 he last century Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and the 
 )oet Goethe, had put forth various hints and suggestions 
 )ointing to evolution in the organic world, which they 
 mdoubtedly believed to have occurred, no definite state- 
 aent of the theory had appeared till early in the present 
 
 m 
 
136 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xiii. 
 
 century, when La Place explained liis views as to the 
 evolution of the stellar universe and of solar and planet- 
 ary systems in his celebrated ISTebular Hypothesis; and 
 about the same time Lamarck published his " Philo- 
 sophic Zoologique," containing an elaborate exposition 
 of his theory of the progressive development of animals 
 and plants. But this theory gained few converts among 
 naturalists, partly because Lamarck was before his time, 
 and also because the causes he alleged did not seem ade- 
 quate to produce the wonderful adaptations we every- 
 where see in nature. During the first half of the present 
 century, owing to the fact that Brazil, South Africa, and 
 Australia then became for the first time accessible to 
 English collectors, the treasures of the whole world of 
 nature were poured in upon us so rapidly that the com- 
 paratiA'ely limited number of naturalists were fully 
 occupied in describing the new species and endeavoring 
 to discover true methods of classification. The need of 
 any general theory of how species came into existence 
 was hardly felt; and there was a general impression that 
 the problem was at that time insoluble, and that we must 
 spend at least another centui'y in collecting, describing, 
 and classifying, before we had any chance of dealing 
 successfully with the origin of si^ecies. But the subject 
 of evolution was ever present to the more philosophic 
 thinkers, though the great majority of naturalists and 
 men of science held firmly to the dogma that each species 
 of animal and plant was a distinct creation, though how 
 produced was admitted to be both totally unkno-^vn and 
 almost, if not quite, unimaginable. 
 
 The vague ideas of those who favored evolution were 
 first set forth in systematic form, with much literary skill 
 
CHAP. XIII. EVOLUTION AND NATURAL SELECTION. 137 
 
 and scientific knowledge, by the late Robert Chambers 
 in 1844, in his anonymous volume, " Vestiges of the 
 Natural History of Creation." He passed in review the 
 stellar and solar systems, adopted the iSTebular Hy- 
 pothesis, and sketched out the geological history of the 
 earth, with continuous progression from lower to higher 
 forms of life. After describing the peculiarities of the 
 lower plants and animals, dwelling upon those features 
 which seemed to point to a natural mode of production 
 as opposed to an origin by special creation, the author 
 set forth with much caution the doctrine of progressive 
 development resulting from " an impulse which was im- 
 parted to the forms of life, advancing them in definite 
 lines, by generation, through grades of organization ter- 
 minating in the highest plants and animals." The rea- 
 sonableness of this view was urged through the rest of 
 the work; and it was shown how much better it agreed 
 with the various facts of nature and with the geographi- 
 cal distribution of animals and plants, than the idea of 
 the special creation of each distinct species. 
 
 It will be seen, from this brief outline, that there was 
 no attempt whatever to show how or why the various 
 species of animals and plants acquired their peculiar 
 characters, but merely an argument in favor of the rea- 
 sonableness of the fact of progressive development, from 
 one species to another, through the ordinary processes of 
 generation. The book was what we should now call 
 mild in the extreme. It was serious and even religious 
 in tone, and calculated in this respect to disarm the oppo- 
 sition even of the most orthodox theologists; yet it was 
 met with just the same storm of opposition and indignant 
 abuse which assailed Darwin's work fifteen years later. 
 
138 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xm. 
 
 As an illustration of the state of scientific opinion at this 
 time, it may he mentioned that so great a man as Sir 
 John Herschel, at a scientific meeting in London, spoke 
 strongly against the book for its advocacy of so great a 
 scientific heresy as the Theory of Development. 
 
 I well remember the excitement caused by the publi- 
 cation of the " Vestiges," and the eagerness and delight 
 with which 1 read it. Although I saw that it really 
 offered no explanation of the process of change of 
 species, yet the view that the change was effected, not 
 through any unimaginable process, but through the 
 known laws and processes of reproduction, commended 
 itself to me as perfectly satisfactory, and as affording the 
 first step toward a more complete and explanatory 
 theory. It seems now a most amazing thingi;hat even 
 to argue for this first step was accounted a heresy, and 
 was almost universally condemned as being opposed to 
 the teaching of both science and religion ! 
 
 The book was, however, as great a success as, later on, 
 was Darwin's " Origin of Species." Four editions were 
 issued in the first seven months, and by 1860 it had 
 reached the eleventh edition, and about 24,000 copies 
 had been sold. It is certain that this work did great 
 service in familiarizing the reading public with the idea 
 of evolution, and thus preparing them for the more 
 complete and efficient theory laid before them by 
 Darwin. 
 
 During the fifteen years succeeding the publication of 
 the '' Vestiges " many naturalists expressed their belief 
 in the progressive development of organic forms; while 
 in 1852 Herbert Spencer published his essay contrast- 
 ing the theories of Creation and Development with such , 
 
oiiAP. XIII. EVOLUTION AND NATURAL SELECTION. 139 
 
 skill and logical power as to carry conviction to the 
 minds of all unprejudiced readers; but none of these 
 writers suggested any definite theory of how the change 
 of species actually occurred. That was first done in 
 1858; and in connection with it I may, perhaps, venture 
 to give a few personal details. 
 
 Ever since I read the " Vestiges " I had been con- 
 vinced that development took place by means of the ordi- 
 nary process of reproduction ; but though this was widely 
 admitted, no one had set forth the various kinds of evi- 
 dence that rendered it almost a certainty. I endeavored 
 to do this in an article written at Sarawak in February, 
 1855, which was published in the following September 
 in the " Annals of Natural History." Relying mainly 
 on the well-known facts of geographical distribution and 
 geological succession, I deduced from them the law, or 
 generalization, that, " Every species has come into exist- 
 ence coincident both in Space and Time with a Pre- 
 existing closely allied Species " ; and I showed how many 
 peculiai'ities in the affinities, the succession, and the dis- 
 tribution of the forms of life, were explained by this 
 hypothesis, and that no important facts contradicted it. 
 
 Even then, however, I had no conception of how or 
 why each new form had come into existence with all its 
 beautiful adaptations to its special mode of life; and 
 though the subject was continually being pondered over, 
 no hght came to me till three years later (February, 
 1858), under somewhat peculiar circumstances. I was 
 then living at Ternate in the Moluccas, and was suffer- 
 ing from a rather severe attack of intermittent fever, 
 which prostrated me for several hours every day during 
 the cold and siicceeding hot fits. During one of these 
 
140 THE WONDERFIJL CENTURY. chap. xiii. 
 
 fits, while again considering the problem of the origin 
 of species, something led me to think of Malthus' Essay 
 on Population (which I had read about ten years before), 
 and the " positive checks " — war, disease, famine, acci- 
 dents, etc. — which he adduced as keeping all savage 
 populations nearly stationary. It then occurred to me 
 that these checks must also act upon animals, and keep 
 down their numbers; and as they increase so much faster 
 than man does, while their numbers are always very 
 nearly or quite stationary, it was clear that these checks 
 in their case must be far more powerful, since a number 
 equal to the whole increase must be cut off by them 
 every year. While vaguely thinking how this would 
 aifect any species, there suddenly flashed upon me the 
 idea of the survival of the fittest — that the individuals 
 removed by these checks must be, on the whole, inferior 
 to those that survived. Then, considering the varia- 
 tions continually occurring in every fresh generation of 
 animals or plants, and the changes of climate, of food, of 
 enemies always in progress, the whole method of specific 
 modification became clear to me, and in the two hours of 
 my fit I had thought out the main points of the theory. 
 That same evening I sketched out the draft of a paper; 
 in the two succeeding evenings I wrote it out, and sent 
 it by the next post to Mr. Darwin.^ I fully expected it 
 would be as new to him as it was to myself, because he 
 had informed me by letter that he was engaged on a 
 work intended to show in what way species and varie- 
 ties differ from each other, adding, " my work will not 
 fix or settle anything." I was therefore surprised to 
 find that he had really arrived at the very same theory 
 
 ' These two papers are reprinted in my " Natural Selection and 
 Tropical Nature." 
 
CHAP. xiii. EVOLUTION AND NATURAL SELECTION. 141 
 
 as mine long before (in 1844), had worked it out in con- 
 siderable detail, and had shown the MSS. to Sir Charles 
 Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker ; and on their recommenda- 
 tion my paper and sufficient extracts from his MSS. work 
 were read at a meeting of the Linnean Society in July of 
 the same year, when the theory of Natural Selection, or 
 survival of the fittest, was first made known to the world. 
 But it received little attention till Darwin's great and 
 epoch-making book appeared at the end of the following 
 year. 
 
 We may best attain to some estimate of the greatness 
 and completeness of Darwin's work by considering the 
 vast change in educated public opinion which it rapidly 
 and permanently effected. What that opinion was be- 
 fore it appeared is shown by the fact that neither La- 
 marck, nor Herbert Spencer, nor the author of the 
 " Vestiges," had been able to make any impression upon 
 it. The very idea of progressive development of species 
 from other species was held to be a " heresy " by such 
 great and liberal-minded men as Sir John Herscliel and 
 Sir Charles Lyell; the latter writer declaring, in the 
 earlier editions of his gi-eat work, that the facts of geology 
 were " fatal to the theory of progressive development." 
 The whole literary and scientific worlds were violently 
 opposed to all such theories, and altogether disbelieved in 
 the possibility of establishing them. It had been so 
 long the custom to treat species as special creations, and 
 the mode of their creation as "the mystery of mys- 
 teries," that it had come to be considered not only pre- 
 sumptuous, but almost impious, for any individual to 
 profess to have lifted the veil from what was held to be 
 the greatest and most mysterious of Nature's secrets. 
 
142 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 But what is the state of educated literary and scien- 
 tific opinion at the present day? Evolution is now uni- 
 versally accepted as a demonstrated principle, and not 
 one single writer of the slightest eminence, that I am 
 aware of, declares his disbelief in it. This is, of course, 
 partly due to the colossal work of Herbert Spencer; but 
 for one reader of his works there are probably ten of 
 Darwin's, and the establishment of the theory of the 
 " origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection " is 
 wholly Darwin's work. That book, together with those 
 which succeeded it, has so firmly established the doctrine 
 of progressive development of species by the ordinary 
 processes of multiplication and variation that there is 
 now, I believe, scarcely a single living naturalist who 
 doubts it. What was a " great heresy " to Sir John 
 Herschel in 1845, and " the mystery of mysteries " down 
 to the date of Darwin's book, is now the common knowl- 
 edge of every clever schoolboy, and of everyone who 
 reads even the newspapers. The only thing discussed 
 now is, not the fact of evolution, — that is admitted, — but 
 merely whether or no the causes alleged by Darwin are 
 themselves sufficient to explain evolution of species, or 
 require to be supplemented by other causes, known or 
 unknown. Probably so complete a change of educated 
 opinion, on a question of such vast difficulty and com- 
 plexity, was never before effected in so short a time. It 
 not only places the name of Darwin on a level with that 
 of Newton, but his work will always be considered as one 
 of the greatest, if not the very greatest, of the scientific 
 achievements of the nineteenth century, rich as that cen- 
 tury has been in great discoveries in every department 
 of physical science. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 POPULAR DISCOVERIES IN PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 Recluse, th' interior sap and vapor dwells, 
 In nice transparence of minutest cells. 
 
 — H. Brooke. 
 
 But a heavenly sleep 
 That did suddenly steep 
 In balm my bosom's pain. 
 
 — Shelley. 
 
 The science of Physiology, which investigates the 
 complex phenomena of the motions, sensations, growth, 
 and development of organisms, is almost wholly the 
 product of the present century; but with the exception 
 of a few fundamental conceptions, it has been an almost 
 continuous growth by small increments, and offers few 
 salient points of popular interest, or which can be made 
 intelligible to the general reader. 
 
 The first of the great fundamental conceptions re- 
 ferred to is the cell-theory, which was definitely estab- 
 lished for plants in 1838, and immediately afterward 
 for animal-structures. The theory is that all the parts 
 and tissues of plants and animals are built up of cells, 
 modified in form and function in an infinite variety of 
 ways, but to be traced in the early stages of growth, alike 
 of bone and muscle, neiwe and blood vessel, skin and 
 hair, root, wood, and flower. And, further, that all 
 organisms originate in simple cells, which are almost 
 identical in form and structure, and which thus consti- 
 tute the fundamental unit of all living things. 
 
 143 
 
144 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xiv. 
 
 The second great generalization is what has been 
 termed the recapitulation theory of development. 
 Every animal or plant begins its existence as a cell, 
 which develops by a process of repeated fission and 
 growth into the perfect form. But if we trace the dif- 
 ferent types backward, we find that we come to a stage 
 when the embryos of all the members of an order, such as 
 the various species of Ruminants, are imdistinguishable; 
 earlier still all the members of a class, such as the Mam- 
 malia, are equally alike, so that the embryos of a sheep 
 and a tiger would be almost identical; earlier still all ver- 
 tebrates, a lizard, a bird, and a monkey, are equally un- 
 distinguishable. Thus in its progress from the cell to 
 the perfect form every animal recapitulates, as it were, 
 the lower forms upon its line of descent, thus affording 
 one of the strongest indirect proofs of the theory of evo- 
 lution. The earliest definite result of cell-division is to 
 form what is termed the " gastrula," which is a sack 
 with a narrow mouth, formed of two layers of cells. 
 All the higher animals without exception, from nioUusk 
 to man, go through this " gastrula " stage, which again" 
 indicates that all are descended from a common ancestral 
 form of this general type. 
 
 One other physiological discovery is worth noting 
 here, both on account of its remarkable nature and be- 
 cause it leads to some important conclusions in relation 
 to the zymotic diseases. Quite recently it has been 
 proved that the white coi'puscles of the blood, whose 
 fiinction was previously unknown, are really independ- 
 ent Hving organisms. They are produced in large num- 
 bers by the spleen, an organ which has long been a 
 puzzle to physiologists, but whose function and impor- 
 
CHAP. XIV. POPULAR DISCOVERIES IN PHYSIOLOGY. 145 
 
 tance to the organism seem to be now made clear. 
 They are much smaller and less numerous than the red 
 blood-globules; they move about quite independently; 
 and they behave in a manner which shows that they are 
 closely allied to, if not identical with, the amoebae found 
 abundantly in stagnant water, and which form such 
 interesting microscopic objects. These minute animal 
 organisms, which inhabit not only our blood-vessels but 
 all the tissues of the body, have an important function 
 to perform on which oiu' very lives depend. This func- 
 tion is, to devour and destroy the bacteria or germs of 
 disease which may gain an entrance to our blood or tis- 
 sues, and which, when their increase is unchecked, pro- 
 duce various disorders and even death. Under the 
 higher powers of the microscope the leucocytes, as they 
 are termed, can be observed continually moving about, 
 and on coming in contact with any of these bacteria or 
 their germs, or other hurtful substances, they send out 
 pseudopodia from their protoplasm which envelops the 
 germ and soon causes it to disappear; but they also ap- 
 pear sometimes to produce a secretion which is injurious 
 to the bacteria, and so destroys them, and these may per- 
 haps be distinct organisms. 
 
 It seems probable, and, in fact, almost certain, that so 
 long as we live in tolerably healthy conditions, these 
 leucocytes (or phagocytes as they are sometimes called 
 from their function of devouring injurious germs) are 
 able to deal with all disease-germs which can gain access 
 to our system ; but, when we live in impure air, or drink 
 impure water, or feed upon unwholesome food, our sys- 
 tem becomes enfeebled, and our guardian leucocytes are 
 unable to destroy the disease-germs that gain access to 
 
146 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xiv. 
 
 our organism; they then increase rapidly, and are in 
 many cases able to destroy us. 
 
 AVe learn from this marvellous discovery that, so 
 long as we live simply and naturally, and obey the well- 
 known laws of sanitation, so as to secure a healthy condi- 
 tion of the body, the more dreaded zymotic diseases will 
 be powerless against us. But if we neglect these laws 
 of health, or allow of conditions which compel large 
 bodies of our fellow-men to neglect them, these disease- 
 germs will be present in such quantities in the air and 
 the water aroimd us that even those who personally live 
 comparatively wholesome lives will not always escape 
 them. 
 
 AYe learn, too, another lesson from this latest dis- 
 covery of the secrets of the living universe. Jixst as we 
 saw how, physically, dust was so important that not only 
 much of the beauty of nature but the very habitability 
 of our globe depended upon it, so we now find that the 
 most minute and most abundant of all organisms are 
 those on which both our means of life and our preserva- 
 tion from death are dependent. For these minute bac- 
 teria of various kinds are present everywhere — in the 
 air, in the water, in the soil under our feet. Their func- 
 tion appears to be to break up by putrefactive processes 
 all dead organized matter, and thus prepare it for being 
 again assimilated by plants, so as to form food for ani- 
 mals and for man; and it seems probable that they pre- 
 pare the soil itself for plant-growth by absorbing and 
 fixing the nitrogen of the atmosphere. They are, in 
 fact, omnipresent, and under normal conditions they are 
 wholly beneficial. It is we ourselves who, by our 
 crowded cities, our polluted streams, and our unnatural 
 
OHAP. XIV, POPULAR DISCOVERIES IN PHYSIOLOGY. 147 
 
 and unwliolesome lives, enable them to exert their 
 disease-creating powers. 
 
 A brief notice must also be given of two discoveries in 
 practical physiology, which have perhaps done more to 
 benefit mankind than those great mechanical inventions 
 and philosophical theories which receive more general 
 admiration. These are, the use of anjesthetics in sur- 
 gical operations, and the antiseptic treatment of wounds. 
 
 AnaBsthetics were first used in dentistry in 1846, the 
 agent being ether; while chloroform, for more severe sur- 
 gical operations, was adopted in 1848; and though their 
 primary effect is only to abolish pain, they get rid of so 
 much nervous irritation as greatly to aid in the subse- 
 quent recovery. The use of anesthetics thus renders it 
 possible for many operations to be safely performed 
 which, without it, would endanger life by mere shock to 
 the system; while to the operating surgeon it gives con- 
 fidence, and enables him to work more deliberately and 
 carefully from the knowledge that the longer time occii- 
 pied will not increase the suffering of the patient or ren- 
 der his recovery less probable. ISTitrous-oxide gas is 
 now chiefly used in dentistry or very short operations, 
 sulphuric ether for those of moderate length, while chlo- 
 roform is usually employed in all the more severe cases, 
 since the patient can by its use be kept in a state of in- 
 sensibility for an hour or even longer. There is, how- 
 ever, some danger in its use to persons with weak heart 
 or of great nervous sensibility, and the patient in such 
 cases may die from the effects of the anaesthetic alone. ^ 
 
 ■The Hyderabad Chloroform Commission, which in 1889 
 thoroughly investigated the causes of death under chloroform, 
 has proved that all such deathi are preventible, if a different mode of 
 
148 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xiv, 
 
 Even more important was the introduction of the 
 antiseptic treatment in 1865, which, by preventing the 
 suppuration of incised or wounded surfaces, has reduced 
 the death-rate for serious amputations from forty-five 
 per cent, to' twelve per cent., and has besides rendered 
 possible numbers of operations which would have been 
 certainly fatal under the old system. I remember my 
 astonishment when, soon after the introduction of the 
 practice, I was told by an eminent physiologist of the 
 new method of performing operations, in which the 
 freshly cut surfaces could be left exposed to the air with- 
 out dressings of any kind, and would soon heal. The 
 antiseptic treatment was the logical outcome of the 
 proof that suppuration of wounds and all processes of 
 fermentation and putrefaction Avere not due to normal 
 changes either in living or dead tissues, but were pro- 
 duced by the growth and the rapid multiplication of 
 minute organisms, especially of those low fungoid groups 
 termed Bacteria. If, therefore, we can adopt measures 
 to keep away or destroy these organisms and. their germs, 
 or in any way prevent their increase, injured living tis- 
 
 administration is adopted. And its couclusions have been confirmed 
 by the indepeudent researclies of four medical men — two English 
 and two American physicians. Yet the old method of adminis- 
 tration is still common in this country, no less than sevent_yfive 
 deaths liaving occurred from this cause in 1896, while the Registrar 
 General records seventy-eight deaths from anisesthetics (almost all 
 from chloroform) in 1895. There is thus a terrible amount of mor- 
 tality due, apparently, to the ignorance of medical men on a subject 
 as to which they are supposed to have exclusive knowledge. An 
 excellent account of the work of the above-named Commission is 
 given in the Nineteenth Century of March, 1898, by a lady who 
 has had to take chloroform more than once, by both methods ; and 
 can therefore judge of their comparative effects by the best of tests- 
 personal experience. 
 
CHAP. XIV. POPULAR DISCOVERIES IN PHYSIOLOGY. 149 
 
 sues will rapidly heal, while dead animal matter can be 
 preserved unchanged almost indefinitely. In the case 
 of wounds and surgical operations this is effected by 
 means of a weak solution of corrosive-sublimate, in 
 which all instruments and evei-ything that comes in con- 
 tact with the wound are washed, and by filling the air 
 around the part operated on with a copious spray of car- 
 bolic acid. Cold has a similar effect in preserving meat ; 
 while the process of tinning various kinds of food de- 
 pends for its success on the same principle, of first kill- 
 ing all bacteria or other germs by heating the filled tins 
 above the boiling point, and then keeping out fresh 
 germs by air-tight fastening. 
 
 The combined use of anaesthetics and antiseptics has 
 almost robbed the surgeon's knife of its terrors, and has 
 enabled the most deeply-seated organs to be laid open 
 and operated upon with success. As a result, more lives 
 are probably now saved by surgery than by any other 
 branch of medicine, since in the treatment of disease 
 there has been comparatively small progress except by 
 trusting more to the healing powers of nature, aided by 
 rest, warmth, pure air, wholesome food, and as few drugs 
 as possible. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ESTIMATE OF ACHIEVEMENTS: THE NINETEENTH AS COM- 
 PARED WITH EAKLIEE CENTUEIES. 
 
 The long crude eflforts of society 
 
 In feeble light by feeble reason led, — 
 But gleaning, gathering still, effect of cause, 
 
 Cause of effect, in ceaseless sequence fed ; 
 Till, slow developing the eons through, j 
 
 The gibbering savage to a Darwin grew — 
 This hath Time witnessed ! Shall his records now, 
 The goal attain'd — the end achieved, avow ? 
 
 —J. H. Dell. 
 
 Having now completed our sketch of those practical 
 discoveries and striking generalizations of science which 
 have in so many respects changed the outward forms of 
 our civilization, and will ever render memorable the cen- 
 tury now so near its close, we are in a position to sum up 
 its achievements, and compare them with what has gone 
 before. 
 
 Taking first those inventions and practical applications 
 of science which are perfectly new departures, and which 
 have also so rapidly developed as to have profoundly 
 affected many of our habits, and even our thoughts and 
 our language, A^find them to be thirteen in number. 
 
 1. Railways, which have revolutionized land-travel 
 and the distribution of commodities. 
 
 2. Steam-navigation, which has done the same thing 
 for ocean travel, and has besides led to the entire recon- 
 struction of the navies of the world. 
 
 150 
 
CHAP. XV. COMPARISON WITH OTHER CENTURIES. 151 
 
 3. Electric TelegrajoWs, which have produced an even 
 greater revolution ^flie communication of thought. 
 
 4. The Telephone, which transmits, or rather repro- 
 duces, the voice of the speaker at a distance. 
 
 5. Friction Matches, which have revolutionized the 
 modes of obtaining fire. 
 
 6. Gas-lighting, which enormously improved outdoor 
 and other illumination. 
 
 7. Electric-lighting, another advance, now threaten- 
 ing to supersede gas. 
 
 8. Photography, an art which is to the external forms 
 of nature what printing is to thought. 
 
 9. The Phonograph, which preserves and reproduces 
 sounds as photography preserves and reproduces forms. 
 
 10. The Rontgen Rays, which render many opaque 
 objects transparent, and open up a new world to 
 photography. 
 
 11. Spectrum Analysis, which so greatly extends our 
 knowledge of the universe that by its assistance we are 
 able to ascertain the relative heat and chemical consti- 
 tution of the stars, and ascertain the existence, and meas- 
 ure the rate of motion, of stellar bodies which are en- 
 tirely invisible. 
 
 12. The use of Anaesthetics, rendering the most se- 
 vere surgical operations painless. 
 
 13. The use of Antiseptics in surgical operations, 
 which has still further extended the means of saving life. 
 
 Now, if we ask what inventions comparable with these 
 were made during the previous (eighteenth) century, it 
 seems at first doubtful whether there were any. But 
 we may perhaps admit the development of the steam- 
 engine from the rude but still useful machine of New- 
 
153 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. iv. 
 
 comen to the powerful and economical engines of Boul- 
 ton and Watt. The principle, however, was known long 
 before, and had been practically applied in the previous 
 century by the Marquis of Worcester and by Savery; 
 and the improvements made by Watt, though very im- 
 portant, had a very limited result. The engines made 
 were almost wholly used in pumping the water out of 
 deep mines, and the bulk of the population knew no 
 more of them, nor derived any more direct benefit from 
 them, than if they had not existed. 
 
 In the seventeenth century, the one great and far- 
 reaching invention was that of the Telescope, which, in 
 its immediate results of extending our knowledge of the 
 universe and giving possibilities of future knowledge not 
 yet exhausted, may rank with spectrum analysis in our 
 own era. The Barometer and Thermometer are minor 
 discoveries. 
 
 In the sixteenth century we have no invention of the 
 first rank, but in the fifteenth we have Printing. 
 
 The Mariner's Compass was invented early in the 
 fourteenth century, and was of great importance in ren- 
 dering ocean navigation possible and thus facilitating 
 the discovery of America. 
 
 Then, backward to the dawn of history, or rather to 
 prehistoric times, we have the two great engines of 
 knowledge and discovery — the Indian or Arabic 
 numerals leading to arithmetic and algebra, and, more 
 remote still, the invention of alphabetical writing. 
 
 Slimming these up, we find only five inventions of 
 the first rank in all preceding time — the telescope, the 
 printing-press, the mariner's compass, Arabic numerals, 
 and alphabetical writing, to which we may add the 
 
OHAP. XV. COMPARISON WITH OTHER CENTURIES. 153 
 
 steam-engine and the barometer, making seven in all, as 
 against thirteen in oiir single century. 
 
 Coming now to the theoretical discoveries of our time, 
 which have extended our knowledge or widened our con- 
 ceptions of the universe, we find them to be about equal 
 in number, as follows: 
 
 1. The determination of the mechanical equivalent of 
 heat, leading to the great principle of the Conservation 
 of Energy. 
 
 2. The Molecular theory of gases. 
 
 3. The mode of direct measurement of the Velocity 
 of Light, and the experimental proof of the Earth's Ro- 
 tation. These are put together, because hardly suffi- 
 cient alone. 
 
 4. The discovery of the function of Dust in na- 
 ture. 
 
 5. The theory of definite and multiple proportions in 
 Chemistry. 
 
 6. The nature of Meteors and Comets, leading to the 
 Meteoritic theory of the Universe. 
 
 7. The proof of the Glacial Epoch, its vast extent, 
 and its effects upon the earth's surface. 
 
 8. The proof of the great Antiquity of Man. 
 
 9. The establishment of the theory of Organic Evo- 
 lution. 
 
 10. The Cell theory and the Recapitulation theory in 
 Embryology. 
 
 11. The Germ theory of the Zymotic diseases. 
 
 12. The discovery of the nature and function of the 
 White Blood-corpuscles. 
 
 Turning to the past, in the eighteenth century we may 
 perhaps claim two groups of discoveries: 
 
154 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. 2 
 
 1. The foundation of modern Chemistry by Bla& 
 Cavendish, Priestley, and Lavoisier; and 
 
 2. The foundation of Electrical science by Frankli: 
 Galvani, and Volta. 
 
 The seventeenth century is richer in epoch-makir 
 discoveries, since we have : 
 
 3. The theory of Gravitation established. 
 
 4. The discovery of Kepler's Laws. 
 
 5. The invention of Fluxions and the Different! 
 Calculus. 
 
 6. Harvey's proof of the circulation of the Blood. 
 
 7. Roemer's proof of finite velocity of Light by Juj 
 ter's satellites. 
 
 Then, going backward, we can find nothing of the fir 
 rank except Euclid's wonderful system of Geometr 
 derived from earlier Greek and Egyptian sources, ar 
 perhaps the most remarkable mental product of tl 
 earliest civilizations; to which we may add the introdu 
 tion of Arabic numerals, and the use of the Alphabe 
 Thus in all past history we find only eight theories 1 
 principles antecedent to the nineteenth century as cor 
 pared with twelve during that century. It will be we 
 now to give comparative lists of the great inventions ai 
 discoveries of the two eras, adding a few others to thoi 
 above enumerated. 
 
 Op the Nineteenth 
 Century. 
 
 1. Railways. 
 
 2. Steamships. 
 
 3. Electric Telegraphs. 
 
 4. The Telephone. 
 
 5. Lucifer Matches. 
 
 6. Gas Ulumiuation. 
 
 Of All Preceding Ages. 
 
 1. The Mariner's Compass. 
 
 2. The Steam Engine. 
 
 3. The Telescope. 
 
 4. The Barometer and Thi 
 
 mometer. 
 
 5. Printing. 
 
CHAP. XV. COMPARISON WITH OTHER CENTURIES. 155 
 
 10. 
 11. 
 13. 
 13. 
 14. 
 15. 
 16. 
 
 Of the Nineteenth 
 Centxirt. 
 
 7. Electric Lighting. 
 
 8. Photography. 
 
 9. The Phonograph. 
 ROntgen Rays. 
 Spectrum Analysis. 
 Aneesthetics. 
 Antiseptic Surgery. 
 Conservation of Energy. 
 Molecular Theory of Gases. 
 Velocity of Light Directly 
 
 Measured, and Earth's 
 Rotation Experimentally 
 Shown. 
 
 17. Tlie Uses of Dust. 
 
 18. Chemistry, Definite Pro- 
 
 portions. 
 Meteors and the Meteoritic 
 
 Theory. 
 The Glacial Epoch. 
 The Antiquity of Man. 
 
 22. Organic Evolution Estab- 
 
 lished. 
 
 23. Cell Theory and Embry- 
 
 ology. 
 Germ Theory of Disease, 
 and the Function of the 
 Leucocytes. 
 
 19. 
 
 20. 
 21, 
 
 24 
 
 Op All Preceding Ages. 
 
 6. Arabic Numerals. 
 
 7. Alphabetical Writing. 
 
 8. Modern Chemistry Founded. 
 
 9. Electric science Pounded. 
 
 10. Gravitation Established. 
 
 11. Kepler's Laws. 
 
 12. The Differential Calculus. 
 
 13. The Circulation of the 
 
 Blood. 
 
 14. Light proved to have Finite 
 
 Velocity. 
 
 15. The Development of Geo- 
 
 metry. 
 
 Of course these numbers are not absolute. Either 
 series may be increased or diminished by taking account 
 of other discoveries as of equal importance, or by strik- 
 ing out some which may be considered as below the 
 grade of an important or epoch-making step in science or 
 civilization. But the difference between the two lists 
 is so large that probably no competent judge would 
 bring them to an equality. Again, it is noteworthy that 
 nothing like a regular gradation is perceptible during 
 
156 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xv. 
 
 the last three or four centuries. The eighteenth cen- 
 tury, instead of showing some approximation to the 
 wealth of discovery in our own age, is le£3 remarkable 
 than the seventeenth, having only about half the num- 
 ber of really great advances. 
 
 It appears then that the statement in my iirst chap- 
 ter, that to get any adequate comparison with the nine- 
 teenth century we must take, not any preceding century 
 or group of centuries, but rather the whole preceding 
 epoch of human history, is justified, and more than justi- 
 fied, by the comparative lists now given. And if we 
 take into consideration the change eifected in science, in 
 the arts, in all the possibilities of human intercourse, and 
 in the extension of our knowledge, both of our earth and 
 of the whole visible universe, the difference shown by 
 the mere numbers of these advances will have to be con- 
 siderably increased on account of the marvellous charac- 
 ter and vast possibilities of further development of many 
 of our recent discoveries. Both as regards the number 
 and the quality of its onward advances, the age in which 
 we live fully merits the title I have ventured to give it 
 of — The Wonderful Century. 
 
PROaRESS. 
 
 Not empanoplied as Pallas, with her spear and Gorgon shield, 
 But with fair Athene's olive, peaceful Progress takes the field ; 
 Yet that shield is ever ready, and that spear is hers at need, 
 To protect the field she cultures, and defend the garnered seed ; 
 And the meanest in her legions, marching with a level breast 
 In unbroken line of duty with her bravest and her best, 
 Answering only to her watchwords, walking only by her light, 
 Mustering to her only banner — to the gonfalon of Right ; 
 For that flag's unstained honor — in that flag's unswerving cause — 
 Knows no other teacher's credo — owns no other leader's laws ; 
 Treads that only Temple's pavement by the feet of Reason trod, 
 That hath Truth alone for Priestess — Equity alone for God. 
 
 —J. H. DM. 
 
 1S7 
 
RIGHT. 
 
 Thy cause is Right, gird then thy loins her mandate to fulfil ; 
 Unswerving purpose, fix'd resolve, indomitable will — 
 Save these ask no auxiliar arm, l)ut cause-reliant stand, 
 Althougli the foe be myriads strong, and thine a single brand ; 
 Have thou but faith, firm faith alone, and, though the world assa 
 The will-drawn sword that Justice girds sliall 'gainst all odi 
 
 prevail. 
 That charmed sword, nor foe can wrench, nor enemy can wield. 
 It may not fall to adverse hand, the spoil of adverse field. 
 With feint, nor guile, smirch thou its blade, but forward bold 
 
 dare. 
 And bear thou thence Right's victory, or leave her champion then 
 
 —J. H. Bell. 
 
 158 
 
PART II— FAILURES 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE NEGLECT OF PHEENOLOGY. 
 
 All be turned to barnacles, or to apes 
 With foreheads villainous low. 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 His searching wisdom taught 
 How the high dome of thought 
 
 Pictured the mind ; 
 On that fair chart confest, 
 Traced he each reckless guest 
 Which in the human breast 
 Lies deep enshrined. 
 
 —Eulogy of Dr. Oall. 
 
 In the preceding chapters I have, to the best of my 
 ability, given a short, but I trust accurate, sketch of the 
 most prominent examples of material and intellectual 
 progress during the nineteenth century. In doing this 
 I have fully recognized the marvellous character of 
 many of these discoveries, as well as the great amount, 
 and striking novelty, of the material advances to which 
 they have given rise. But, along with this continuous 
 progress in science, in the arts, and in wealth-produc- 
 tion — which has dazzled our imaginations to such an ex- 
 tent that we can hardly admit the possibility of any seri- 
 ous evils having accompanied or been caused by it — 
 there have been many serious failures, intellectual, 
 social, and moral. Some of our great thinkers have 
 been so impressed by the terrible nature of these fail- 
 
 159 
 
160 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. cuap. xvi. 
 
 ures, that they have doubted whether the final result of 
 the work of the century has any balance of good over 
 evil — of happiness over misery, for mankind at large. 
 But although this may be an exaggerated and pessimistic 
 view, there can be no doubt of the magTiitude of the 
 evils that have grown up or persisted, in the midst of all 
 our triumphs over natural forces, and our unprecedented 
 growth in wealth and luxury. 
 
 We have also neglected or rejected some important 
 lines of investigation affecting our own intellectual and 
 spiritual nature; and have in consequence made serious 
 mistakes in our modes of education, in our treatment of 
 mental and physical disease, and in our dealings with 
 criminals. A sketch of these vai'ious failures will now 
 be given, and will, I believe, constitute not the least im- 
 portant portion of my work. I begin with the subject 
 of Phrenology, a science of whose substantial truth and 
 vast importance I have no more doubt than I have of 
 the value and importance of any of the great intellectual 
 advances already recorded. 
 
 In the last years of the eighteenth century Dr. Fran- 
 cois Joseph Gall, a German physician, discovered (or re- 
 discovered) the facts, now universally admitted, that the 
 brain is the organ of the mind, that different parts of 
 the brain are connected with different mental and 
 physical manifestations, and that, other things being 
 equal, size of the brain and of its various parts is an indi- 
 cation of mental power. He began his observations on 
 this subject when a boy, by noticing the different char- 
 acters and talents of his schoolfellows — some were peace- 
 able, some quarrelsome; some were expert in penman- 
 ship, others in arithmetic ; some could learn by rote even 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 161 
 
 without comprehension, while others, although more in- 
 telligent, could not do so. He himself was one of the 
 latter group; and this led him to notice that those who 
 surpassed him most in this power of verbal memory, 
 however different they might be in other respects, had all 
 prominent eyes. The meaning of this peculiarity he did 
 not at the time perceive, but he continued his observa- 
 tions at college and in the hospitals, and very gradually 
 acquired the certainty that strongly marked peculiarities 
 of character or talent were associated with constant 
 peculiarities in the form of the head. This led him to 
 pay special attention to the anatomy of the brain and its 
 bony covering ; he made collections of skulls and casts of 
 skulls of persons having special mental characteristics; 
 he collected also the skulls of various animals, and com- 
 pared their brains with those of man; he visited prisons, 
 schools, and colleges, everywhere making observations 
 and comparisons of form and size with mental faculties; 
 and later on, when he became physician to a lunatic 
 asylum in Vienna, he had vast opportunities for study- 
 ing the diseased brain, and for observing the correspond- 
 ence between the form of the head and the special delu- 
 sions of each patient. 
 
 It was after more than twenty years of continuous 
 observation and study, under exceptionally favorable 
 conditions, that he became convinced that he had dis- 
 covered a real connection between the mental faculties 
 and the form and size of the various parts of the brain; 
 and in the year 1796 he began lecturing on the subject. 
 His lectures were continued for five years, and were at- 
 tended by numerous physicians and medical students, as 
 well as by men of culture of all ranks, many converts 
 
162 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvi. 
 
 being made. The lectures were then forbidden by the 
 authorities, on the ground that he had not had permis- 
 sion to deliver them. He declined to ask for permis- 
 sion, and soon afterward left Vienna, and with his most 
 distinguished pupil. Dr. Spurzheim, travelled through a 
 large part of K^orthern Europe, lecturing in the chief 
 cities, and finally settled in Paris in 1807. In 1813 
 Spurzheim visited Great Britain, where he lectured for 
 four years; and it was during this period that George 
 Combe made his acquaintance in Edinburgh, and thence- 
 forth began that long course of personal observation and 
 study which rendered him the best English exponent of 
 the science, and probably one of the best practical phre- 
 nologists of any country. 
 
 Combe was a man of great mental power, extremely 
 logical, ardent in the pursuit of truth, but also extremely 
 cautious in ascertaining what was and what was not true. 
 A clever writer in the Edinburgh Review — Dr. John 
 Gordon — had just condemned and ridiculed the doc- 
 trines of Gall and Spurzheim as being full of absurdities 
 and misstatements, and " a piece of thorough quackery 
 from beginning to end." It was a clever and vigorous 
 critique, apparently founded on knowledge; and Combe 
 read it with so much enjoyment and conviction that 
 when, shortly afterward, Spurzheim came to Edinburgh 
 and gave a course of lectures, he refused to go and hear 
 him. When the lectures were over, however, a friend 
 asked Combe if he would like to come to his house and 
 see Dr. Spurzheim dissect a brain; and as he was always 
 eager for knowledge, and had already studied anatomy, 
 he went. Combe had been a physiological student 
 under Dr. Barclay, and had often seen him dissect the 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OP PHRENOLOGY. 163 
 
 brain, but was taught nothing of its functions, of which 
 the lecturer had declared that nothing was known. But 
 when Dr. Spurzheim dissected. Combe tells us that he at 
 once saw how " inexpressibly superior " was his method, 
 in showing its detailed structure; while he saw at the 
 same time that the reviewer had displayed profound 
 ignorance, and had been guilty of gross misrepresenta- 
 tion. He therefore attended Spurzheim's second course 
 of lectures, and was so impressed that he determined to 
 observe and study for himself. He at once ordered 
 from London a collection of casts of the skulls of men of 
 known mental peculiarities — artists, writers, workers, 
 criminals, etc. ; but when they arrived, the differences 
 looked so slight that he thought he should never be able 
 to determine the peculiarities which, on Dr. Spurzheim's 
 theory, were so important, and therefore determined to 
 put them aside and trouble no more about them. But 
 their arrival was known to some of his friends, and num- 
 bers of persons called asking to see them, and begging 
 him to explain their phrenological peculiarities. He 
 was thus forced to observe them more carefully; and as 
 he showed them to each fresh visitor he began to see that 
 there were large differences between them, and that 
 these differences corresponded to the differences of their 
 known characters, according to the position of the organs 
 as determined by Gall and Spurzheim. He thus ob- 
 tained confidence in his powers of observation, and there- 
 fore determined to go on with the study. He began to 
 observe the heads of all his friends and clients, and found 
 that these usually confirmed the experience already 
 gained. This gave him confidence; and for three years 
 he went on studying both the heads of living persons and 
 
164 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xti 
 
 actual crania, the latter more especially, in order to learn 
 the exact amount of correspondence or difference be- 
 tween the outer and inner surfaces of the skull. His 
 visitors increased as his knowledge rendered his expla- 
 nations more interesting, and thus, he tells us, he became 
 a phrenologist and a lecturer on phrenology by a con- 
 catenation of circumstances which were not foreseen 
 and the ultimate consequences of which he had never 
 contemplated. 
 
 Before proceeding further with a sketch of the evi- 
 dences for phrenology, it is well to consider briefly what 
 sort of man Combe was. At the period just referred to 
 he was twenty-seven years old, and in good practice in 
 Edinburgh as a lawyer. He carried on his profession 
 for twenty years longer, his practice continually increas- 
 ing, notwithstanding his various other occupations and 
 the impopularitj' of many of his writings. During this 
 time he had written and published several works — some 
 very extensive — on "Phrenology: The Constitution of 
 Man " — a work which in Scotland caused him to be con- 
 sidered an infidel, but which in England had a circula- 
 tion of a hundred thousand ; " Lectures on Popular Edu- 
 cation; Lectures on Moral Philosophy," afterward 
 enlarged into a "work which went through several edi- 
 tions, besides numerous articles in periodicals and news- 
 papers on a variety of subjects. Though brought up in 
 a religious Scotch family, and of a highly reverential 
 nature, he entirely emancipated himself from religious 
 dogmas, and became the best exponent of a well-reasoned 
 system of natural religion. He was one of the earliest 
 educational reformers, and may almost be considered as 
 the founder of rational systems of education in this coun- 
 
CHAP. xTi. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 165 
 
 try. Wherever he went — and he visited repeatedly 
 many European countries as well as the United States — 
 his great reputation as a religious, social, and educational 
 reformer and philosophical thinker led to his being wel- 
 comed in the best social, scientific, and political circles. 
 At home he was consulted by many persons of eminence, 
 including the Prince Consort, on the best system of edu- 
 cation for their children. Sir James Clark, Kichard 
 Cobden, Robert Chambers, and Charles Mackay the 
 poet, were among his intimate friends; while Lord John 
 Russell, and other influential politicians, were glad to 
 receive information from him on all subjects connected 
 with improved systems of education. 
 
 It may be truly said that on every subject on which 
 he wrote — the constitution of man, natural religion, edu- 
 cation, criminal legislation, the lunacy laws, the cur- 
 rency cjuestion, moral philosophy — he was far in ad- 
 vance of his age; and almost all his principles and his 
 proposals on these subjects, though considered heretical 
 or impracticable by most of his contemporaries, are now 
 either actually adopted or admitted to be correct both in 
 philosophy and in practice. But the one subject to 
 which he gave more careful study than to any other — 
 phrenology — which was indeed the very foundation on 
 which his philosophy and his educational theories were 
 built, was contemptuously rejected by the great bulk of 
 the scientific and literary men of his time, without ade- 
 quate examination, without any reasonable study of so 
 complex and important a subject, but almost entirely on 
 false assumptions, gross misrepresentations, or a priori 
 reasoning. All who have given any careful considera- 
 tion to the writings of Dr. Gall and George Combe ad- 
 
166 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 mit that both were men of exceptional mental power, 
 careful observers, close reasoners, cautious in arriving at 
 conclusions on anything less than overwhelming evi- 
 dence. The first gave all his energies during a long 
 life to the establishment, on a firm basis of observation 
 and experiment, of the new science of Phrenology which 
 he had founded; the second, coming to the subject with 
 prepossessions against it, took nothing for granted, ob- 
 served every alleged fact for himself, criticised, modified, 
 and extended the Avork of his teachers, and taught it by 
 lectures and books in a manner at once popular and 
 scientifically exact. And the life-work of two such men 
 was disposed of, not by pointing out important errors of 
 observation or of reasoning, but largely by abuse, or by 
 means of trivial objections which the most rudimentary 
 knowledge shows to be unfounded. 
 
 Let us now consider, briefly, what phrenology is, what 
 is the evidence on which it is founded, and what are its 
 practical results. In the first place it is a purely induct- 
 ive science, founded step by step on the observation and 
 comparison of facts, confirmed and checked in every 
 conceivable way, and subjected to the most rigid tests. 
 By means of large collections of skulls, and casts of the 
 heads of men and women remarkable for any mental 
 faculty or propensity, and by observations and measure- 
 ments of thousands of living persons, the correspondence 
 of form with function was first suspected, then con- 
 firmed, and finally demonstrated by the comparison of 
 the heads of individuals of every age, both in health and 
 disease, and under the most varied conditions of educa- 
 tion and environment. Three men of exceptional 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OP PHRENOLOGY. 167 
 
 talents and acuteness of observation devoted their lives 
 to the collection of these facts. They studied also the 
 brain itself, and discovered many details of its structure 
 before unknown. They studied the skull, its varying 
 thicknesses in different parts and at different ages, as 
 well as under the influence of disease. And it was only 
 after making allowance for every source of uncertainty 
 or error that they announced the possibility of determin- 
 ing character with a considerable amount of certainty, 
 and often with marvellous exactness. Surely this was a 
 scientific mode of procedure, and the only sound method 
 of ascertaining the relations that exist between the devel- 
 opment of the brain and the mental faculties and powers. 
 A few examples, showing how far this was actually done, 
 will now be given. 
 
 In October, 1835, Combe visited the Newcastle 
 Lunatic Asylum and examined the heads of several of 
 the patients. These were selected by the Surgeon- 
 Superintendent, Mr. Mackintosh, and their mental 
 peculiarities had been noted down by him beforehand. 
 For convenience of comparison. Combe's notes and those 
 of Mr. Mackintosh are put in parallel columns.^ 
 
 Combe's Phrenological Notes. Superintendent's Notes. 
 
 Patient J. N. 
 Animal organs large. A bad character. 
 
 Cautiousness and Destsuc- HypochrondriacaL 
 
 TIVENBSS predominant. 
 Hope small. Moral Facul- Suicidal. 
 TIES deficient. 
 
 Patient L. J. 
 
 AcquisiTivENESS enormously Monomania, wealth. 
 
 large. 
 
 ' These tests at Newcastle are fully reported in the Phrenological 
 Journal, vol. ix. pp. 519-526, 
 
168 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvi. 
 
 Comiti's Phrenological Notes. Superintendent's Notes. 
 
 Patient J. M. 
 
 Intellectual organs well de- Generally sane and tractable. 
 
 veloped. 
 Veneration, Concentrative- Monomania, the Messiah. 
 
 NESS very large. 
 Firmness, Self-esteem large. A proselyte Jew ; will lead the 
 
 Jews to the conquest of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Patient C. S. 
 
 Intellectual organs large. 
 
 Organ of Number exceedingly Dementia — perpetually em- 
 large, ployed with figures and 
 
 arithmetic. 
 
 Female Patient M. D. 
 
 Moral faculties deficient. 
 
 Hope extremely small. Great misery. 
 
 Destrdctiveness and Cau- Suicidal monomania. 
 tiousnkss excessively large. 
 
 At the Dunstane Lodge Asylum, near Newcastle, Mr. 
 Combe, attended by two surgeons, the editor of the 
 Tyne Mercury, and a few other gentlemen, examined 
 the heads of a few patients submitted to him by the pro- 
 prietor, Mr. Wilkinson, who appended his own remarks 
 on the nature of their insanity. 
 
 Mr. Combe's Delineation. Mr. Wilkinson's Remarks. 
 
 Patient J. F. 
 
 Self-esteem and Firmness He proclaims himself to be the 
 
 very large. Great God, and entertains a 
 
 Wonder, Secretiveness, and high esteem of his person and 
 
 AcQUisiTivENEsa also large. strength. He pilfers and 
 
 The character of the insanity picks up little articles when- 
 
 will be self-esteem, and prob- ever he can lay his hands 
 
 ably cunning and theft. on them. 
 
THE NEGLECT OP PHRENOLOGY. 
 
 169 
 
 Mr. Combe's Delineation. 
 
 Mr. Wilkinson's Remarks. 
 
 Patient R. M. 
 
 latellectual organs large. 
 
 L\i[T.VTiON very large. 
 
 Co.MBATiVENESs and Destrcc- 
 TiVENESS very large. 
 
 Hope and Conscientiousness 
 deficient. 
 
 Character very violent ; prob- 
 ably attempted suicide ; great 
 power of expressing bis feel- 
 ings by bis countenance and 
 gestures. 
 
 He has a talent for all kinds 
 of meclmnical work. He is 
 extremely violent, and lias 
 a great talent for imitation. 
 His countenance is fearfully 
 expressive when he is ex- 
 cited. 
 
 Patient H. C. 
 
 Large Combativeness, enor- 
 mous Self-esteem. 
 
 Firmness and Phtloproseni- 
 tiveness large. 
 
 Intellect and Imitation large. 
 
 He will manifest extreme con- 
 ceit with great determina- 
 tion. He will have a great 
 talent for imitation and 
 strong powers of natural 
 language. 
 
 This exactly describes the 
 character. He believes him- 
 self to be a king ; he is 
 prone to imitate ; he is 
 opinionative, and fond of 
 children. 
 
 On October 28 in the same year Mr. Combe visited 
 the Newcastle Jail, accompanied by several medical 
 gentlemen and others who had attended his lectures. 
 Several of the criminals were examined by him, and 
 while he was writing down their characteristics. Dr. 
 George Fife, the assistant-surgeon to the jail, who knew 
 nothing of phrenology, wrote a brief account of their 
 characters from his personal knowledge. The following 
 are the three cases submitted : 
 
170 
 
 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 CHAP. XVl. 
 
 Mr. Combe. 
 
 Br. Fife. 
 
 P. S. (aged 20). 
 
 My inference is that this boy 
 is not accused of violence; 
 he has a talent for deception 
 and a desire for property 
 not regulated by justice. It 
 is most probable that he has 
 swindled: he has the com- 
 bination which contributes to 
 the talent of an aetoi-. 
 
 Twice convicted of theft. He 
 has never shown brutality, 
 but he has no sense of 
 honesty. He has frequently 
 attempted to impose on Dr. 
 Fife. ... He has a talent 
 for imitation. 
 
 T. S. (aged 18). 
 
 This boy is very different from 
 the last. He has probably 
 been committed for assault 
 connected with women. He 
 may have stolen, though I 
 think this less probable. He 
 has fair intellectual talents, 
 and is improvable. 
 
 Crime, rape. . . . Mild dis- 
 position ; has never shown 
 actual vice. 
 
 J. W. (aged 73). 
 
 Case for a lunatic asylum rather 
 than a jail. Moral organs 
 very defective. Intellect 
 moderate. Cautiousness very 
 large. No control of the 
 lower propensities. 
 
 A thief ; obstinate, ungrateful ; 
 one of the most depraved 
 characters. 
 
 Another interesting test-case is the following. A 
 surgeon at Chatham sent a skull to Dr. Elliotson, stating 
 that he belonged to a literary society the members of 
 which were much divided on the subject of phrenology, 
 and it was suggested that the skull in question, being 
 that of a person whose character and previous history 
 was known to the members, should be sent to some emi- 
 nent phrenologist with a request for a delineation of the 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 171 
 
 character. Dr. Elliotson, to whom the person who sent 
 the skull was quite unknown, gave him the following 
 sketch of the character of the deceased person: 
 
 " I should say that he was a man of strong passions, 
 which overbalanced his intellect; that he was prone to 
 great violence, but hy no means courageous ; that he was 
 extremely cautious and sly; his sexual desires were 
 strong, hut Ms love of offspring very remarkable. I can 
 discover no good quality about him except the love of 
 his children, if he had any. The most striking inteh 
 lectual quality in him, I should think, was his wit. He 
 might also have been a good mimic." 
 
 The actual history and character of the man are given 
 at length, but the following are the main points. He 
 was of respectable parentage, but was sensual and 
 vicious. He became a farmer in Cheshire, and took to 
 smuggling salt, which was then contraband; but he 
 always escaped detection, though long suspected. Later, 
 he made use of his assistants in the smuggling business 
 for the purpose of robbing the farmers around of corn, 
 which, being a farmer, he was able to sell without suspi- 
 cion. He was at length detected and condemned to 
 death, a sentence which was commuted to transportation 
 for life. He was, however, on account of his age, not 
 sent abroad, but kept in the convict-hulks. After two 
 years, being in very bad health, he was transferred to the 
 hospital-ship, where he remained till his death. Here 
 he was very reserved as to his own history, but, being 
 treated with great kindness, he made statements to the 
 following effect: (1) That though he had led a lawless 
 life he had never committed murder. (2) That he had 
 a wife and eight children, a natural son in Wales, and 
 
17S THE WOKDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xn. 
 
 that he had several mistresses in different parts of the 
 country np to the time of his apprehension. 
 
 In the hospital he exhibited a severe sarcastic wit at 
 the expense of those around him. The manners and 
 language of the clergyman at the hospital were the fre- 
 quent subjects of his mimicry. He exhibited a strong 
 attachment to his children, and frequently spoke of them 
 in the most affectionate manner. 
 
 It vfill be observed that all the special features of the 
 man's character, as given by Dr. Elliotson, were strictly 
 correct, although the combination was an uncommon and 
 remarkable one; and every unprejudiced person will 
 agree with the following resolution, which was passed by 
 the Society unanimously, and transmitted to Dr. Elliot- 
 son: 
 
 " That the character given of L. by Dr. Elliotson, 
 from the inspection of the skull, corresponds so exactly 
 with his history that it is impossible to consider the 
 coincidence as the effect of chance, but that it is an in- 
 stance which, if supported by many others, affords a 
 strong foundation for the truth of phrenology." ^ 
 
 One other test of a remarkable character is given in 
 the same volume as that containing the above (p. 467). 
 In the spring of 1826 Dr. Thomson, a Navy surgeon, 
 had charge of 148 convicts on the voyage to New South 
 Wales. A friend of the doctor's induced him to allow 
 a phrenologist, Mr. De Yille, to make an examination of 
 the whole number, giving the surgeon a memorandum, 
 which he might compare with the actual character of the 
 men during the long voyage. This was done; and one 
 
 ' The above experiment, with correspondence, is given in full in 
 the Phrenological Journal, vol. iv. p. 258. 
 
cHAi-.xTi. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 173 
 
 man in particular was noted as being " very dangerous 
 from his energy, ferocity, and talent for plots and pro- 
 found dissimulation." The voyage occupied four 
 months, and the surgeon kept a careful official journal 
 as regards the con\dcts, the main facts of which are sum- 
 marized in the following letter to his friend, dated Syd- 
 ney, October 9, 1826: 
 
 " I have to thank you for your introduction to De 
 Ville and to phrenology, which I am now convinced has 
 a foundation in truth, and beg you will be kind enough 
 to call on Dr. Burnett, whom I have requested to show 
 you my Journal, at the end of which is Mr. De Ville's 
 report, and my report of conduct dui'ing the voyage. . . 
 De Ville is right in every case except one — Thomas 
 Jones; but this man can neither read nor write, and, 
 being a sailor, he was induced to join the conspiracy to 
 rise and seize the ship and carry her to South America, 
 being informed by Hughes, the ringleader, that he 
 would then get his liberty. Observe how De Ville has 
 hit the real character of Hughes, and I will be grateful 
 to De Ville all my life ; for his report enabled me to shut 
 up in close custody the malcontents and arrive here not 
 a head minus, which, without the report, it is more than 
 probable I should have been. All the authorities here 
 have become phrenologists, and I cannot get my journals 
 out of their office until they have perused and reperused 
 De Ville's report." ' 
 
 One more case only can here be given. Combe re- 
 viewed a volume by Archbishop Whately, which led to 
 some correspondence, and the Archbishop sent Combe a 
 cast of his head, asking for his unbiassed opinion. The 
 ' See Phrenological Journal, vol. iv. p. 467. 
 
174 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap.xvi. 
 
 Archbishop was much struck by the character-sketch 
 sent, but wishing for a more complete test, requested 
 Combe to send the cast to some other phrenologist, with- 
 out any indication of the person it represented, and let 
 him know the result. Combe did so, and the resulting 
 report was shown to two of the Archbishop's most inti- 
 mate friends, who expressed their wonder at the accuracy 
 with which the character had been unfolded, declaring 
 that, except in a few minor details, they could find noth- 
 ing to correct. The same cast was then sent to a third 
 phrenologist, and the Archbishop gave the following 
 personal details in reference to the two last: " What I 
 was most struck with was, in the one, my difficulty of 
 withstanding solicitations ; in the other, my delight in an 
 infant-school. The former, though well known to my- 
 self, was, I believe, never detected in my conduct." 
 
 I will now briefly state my own experiences of phreno- 
 logical delineation, the accuracy of which confirmed me 
 in the belief that the science is a true and important one, 
 which I had already reached by a study of the works of 
 George and Andrew Combe. "When I was about three 
 or four and twenty, living at Neath, Glamorganshire, I 
 had my head examined by two phrenological lecturers 
 who visited the town at different times. As the fee for 
 a full delineation was rather high I only received a 
 sketch, aud many details were therefore omitted. But 
 all that was stated was correct, and much of it remark- 
 ably so, as shown by the following extracts : 
 
 1. " You will pay great attention to facts, but so soon 
 as facts are presented you will begin to reason and theo- 
 rize upon them. You will be constantly searching for 
 causes." 2. " You will be a good calculator, will excel 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 175 
 
 in mathematics, and will be very systematic in your ar- 
 rangements." 3. " You possess a good deal of firmness 
 in -what you conceive to be right, but you want self- 
 confidence." 
 
 These are the main points of the least full and least 
 successful delineation, and the only error is that my 
 mathematics are strictly limited, as indicated in the bet- 
 ter delineation from which I extract the following: 
 
 4. "This gentleman should learn easily and remember 
 well, notwithstanding verbal memory is but moderate." 
 5. " He has some vanity but more ambition. He may 
 occasionally exhibit a want of self-confidence; but gen- 
 eral opinion ascribes to him too much. In this, opinion 
 is wrong. He knows that he has not enough." 6. " If 
 Wit were larger he would be a good mathematician, but, 
 without it, I do not put his mathematical abilities as first- 
 rate." 7. " He has some love for music from his 
 Ideality, but I do not find a good ear or sufficient Time." 
 8. " He is fond of argument and not easily convinced." 
 
 Nos. 1 and 8 combined with large Ideality and Won- 
 der (as indicated by both phrenologists) giving a strong 
 love of the beauties and the mysteries of nature, furnish 
 the explanation of my whole scientific work and writings. 
 
 Nos. 2 and 6 are exceedingly suggestive on account of 
 their curiously precise estimate of faculty. At school I 
 was good at arithmetic and elementary algebra, which 
 always had a fascination for me; but as I left school 
 when only fourteen I did not advance far. After I 
 came of age, however, I was for two years English and 
 Drawing Master in the Collegiate School at Leicester, 
 the Head Master of which was a high Cambridge 
 Wrangler; and he kindly offered to assist me in the 
 
176 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xvi. 
 
 higher mathematics. I worked through " Hind's Equa- 
 tions " and " Trigonometry " successfully, got on with 
 the " Diflferential Calculus " with some difficulty, but 
 broke down over the " Integral Calculus," for want of 
 that faculty of intuitively perceiving resemblances and 
 incongruities, whether in ideas, words or symbols, some- 
 what awkwardly termed by phrenologists " Wit," but 
 defined by some as the " organ of analogy." As a fact, 
 I have no power to joke or make a pun, or see quickly 
 all the possibilities of a position in chess, though no one 
 more enjoys these diversions than myself. Most great 
 mathematicians are either witty or poetical — Rankine, 
 Clifford, De Morgan, Clerk-Maxwell, and Sylvester 
 being well-known examples; and that a phrenologist 
 should detect my failure in the higher mathematics, and 
 connect it with the deficiency of this organ, has always 
 seemed to me very remarkable. 
 
 Nos. 3 and 5 both dwell on my want of self-confi- 
 dence, and the second says that I am often thought to 
 have too much. This is very true. In youth I was 
 painfully shy, and was literally afraid of calling on 
 people without an invitation. When I was in Para, in 
 1848, 1 was accused of being too proud to call on people, 
 and suffered much in consequence; and throughout my 
 whole life I have never been able to become intimate 
 with any persons except those whose manners and dispo- 
 sitions were such as to make me at once feel sympathetic 
 and at home with them. I have therefore made fewer 
 intimate friends than most men, and all for want of a 
 larger development of self-esteem. 
 
 No. 4 indicates my deficiency of verbal memory, due 
 to a small organ of Language. This makes the acquir- 
 
THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 177 
 
 ing of foreign languages painful to me, and interferes 
 with my success as a public speaker; since, though 1 
 know what ideas or arguments I wish to advance, I can- 
 not at once find the right words by which to express 
 them adequately, and in the effort to find the words the 
 connection of ideas is liable to be lost. 
 
 Lastly, 'No. 7 states the exact nature of my mind in 
 relation to music. Grand or pathetic music affects me 
 strongly; but I should not detect considerable errors in 
 the performance; my ear, as it is termed, being exceed- 
 ingly deficient, while my perception of time is only a 
 trifle better. 
 
 There are some other estimates as to my innermost 
 nature which I know to be correct, but which are not 
 suitable for exposition here; and these, combined with 
 the more obvious characteristics above enumerated, pro- 
 duced a strong impression on my own mind as to the 
 value of phrenology, which has remained unimpaired 
 throughout my life. 
 
 The evidence of the value of phrenology in determin- 
 ing the hidden springs of character here given, might be 
 increased ten- or twenty-fold from the records of the 
 early part of the century ; and they produced an effect on 
 the public mind which has not yet disappeared, since it is 
 not an uncommon thing to meet with people who are 
 quite unaware that the phrenology of their youth has 
 been wholly rejected by the scientific world of to-day. 
 Let us therefore now briefly consider how and why it was 
 so rejected. 
 
 The first great objection was a religious one. The 
 orthodox clergy both in Scotland and England held it to 
 be contrary to Scripture and dangerous to morality. 
 
178 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvi. 
 
 These objectors, of course, never made any pretence of 
 studying the subject, or even of ascertaining what it 
 really was. They decided at once that it was irreligioiis, 
 and their flocks, for the most part, followed them. 
 
 The next body of opponents was that of the meta- 
 physicians, headed by the great name of Sir William 
 Hamilton. These philosophers, as they termed them- 
 selves, had from the earliest ages studied the mind by 
 observations on their own consciousness, and on the men- 
 tal operations of others so far as they could detect them. 
 They recognized no connection between the mind and 
 the organism; and as the phrenologists maintained that 
 they had not only proved such a connection, but had 
 also determined the particular parts of the brain which 
 were the organs of the separate faculties — many of 
 which the metaphysicians did not recognize at all — ^they 
 of course declared the whole science to be erroneous, and 
 its teachers to be little better than deluded fanatics. 
 These objectors, also, never condescended to make any 
 personal study of the science, and remained quite igno- 
 rant of its facts or of the mass of evidence which had 
 been collected in support of it. 
 
 The third class of opponents consisted mainly of doc- 
 tors and physiologists. At first, large numbers of these 
 were converted by attending the lectures of Gall, Spurz- 
 heim, and Combe. In fact there is, so far as I can find, 
 no record of any medical men or others who, having first 
 attended a complete course of lectures, then proceeded to 
 apply and test the information they had obtained with an 
 earnest desire to ascertain the truth of the matter, who 
 did not become confirmed phrenologists. Down to 
 about the years 1840 or 1845 phrenology continued to 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 179 
 
 progress, and there then seemed to be no reason why it 
 should not take its place among the recognized sciences, 
 since it was acknowledged by such men as Sir James 
 Clarke, Physician to the Queen ; Sir John Forbes, M. D. ; 
 Dr. Elliotson, Dr. William Gregory, Dr. Engledue, Dr. 
 Conolly, Physician of Hanwell Asylum ; Dr. Abemethy, 
 Professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the College of 
 Surgeons, and many others. Soon after this period, how- 
 ever, it began to decline; and as the causes which led to 
 this decline have, I believe, never been clearly pointed 
 out, I will here state them as they seem to me to have 
 acted. 
 
 The two main causes which discredited Phrenology 
 appear to have been (1) the increase of itinerant lec- 
 turers, many of whom were uneducated, and some igno- 
 rant of the subject they professed to expound; and (2) 
 its association with mesmerism or hypnotism, which at 
 that time was still more virulently opposed. 
 
 1. Although Phrenology, to be thoroughly under- 
 stood and applied to the accurate delineation of charac- 
 ter, requires a considerable amount of study and long 
 practice, yet it appears, superficially, to be very easy; 
 and it can actually be applied in cases of very marked 
 character with fair success after a moderate amount of 
 practice. Hence, although many of the public expo- 
 nents of the science were very able men, there were 
 others who adopted the business of lecturer and examiner 
 of heads with imperfect knowledge. These, by their 
 ignorance of the anatomy and physiology of the brain, 
 their clumsiness in detecting the comparative size of the 
 organs, and their inability to estimate the complicated 
 
180 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xti. 
 
 results produced by the various combinations of the 
 organs as influenced by temperament, education, and 
 social position, were liable by their mistakes to bring 
 great discredit on the subject, since the public, and espe- 
 cially those who opposed phrenology from any of the 
 causes already stated, could not, or would not, distin- 
 guish between the student and the pretender, and loudly 
 proclaimed that these failures demonstrated the fallacy 
 of the whole science. Considering all these sources of 
 opposition and disrepute, and the difficulty of moving 
 the established sciences and professions, or the oflicial 
 world, to recognize any new thing, it is not to be won- 
 dered at that, when the enthusiasm of the early investi- 
 gators and discoverers had passed away, no new students 
 were found of sufficient independence, ability, and posi- 
 tion to take their place. 
 
 2. Just about the time when Phrenology was gaining 
 a wide acceptance, painless operations during the mes- 
 meric trance were exciting the fiercest opposition of the 
 medical profession; and Dr. John Elliotson, President 
 of the Medical and Chirurgical Society, Lectiirer at St. 
 Thomas' Hospital, and a Professor at the University of 
 London — an ardent phrenologist and founder of the 
 Phrenological Association — was the chief defender of 
 these painless operations, for supporting and practising 
 which his professorship was taken from him. As re- 
 gards this question of hypnotism, Dr. EUiotson is now 
 known to have been right, and his opponents and tra- 
 ducers wholly wrong and grossly prejudiced, as will be 
 shown in our next chapter; yet this prejudice undoubt- 
 edly reacted upon phrenology, and together with the 
 theological and metaphysical prejudice, and that caused 
 
ouAP.xvi. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 181 
 
 by imperfectly educated lecturers and professors, 
 checked the official recognition it might otherwise have 
 received, and rendered it impossible for students of 
 medicine to become avowed phrenologists without in- 
 jury to their professional prospects. 
 
 These combined influences led to its being treated as 
 altogether a fallacy; and so complete became the igno- 
 rance of it among physiologists and medical men in the 
 latter half of the century, that it was, and is, often 
 spoken of as a purely fantastic scheme, the product of 
 the imaginations of its founders, and entirely unsup- 
 ported by observation and experiment. The complete 
 ignorance of how phrenology was discovered by Gall, 
 and of the enormous body of carefully observed facts 
 and experiments it was founded upon, is well shown by 
 the absurdly trivial nature of the objections made to it, 
 even by men who might be supposed at least to have read 
 some of the works of its founders before rejecting it. 
 The most common and often-repeated objection is that 
 of the frontal sinuses and the varying thickness of the 
 skull in different parts and in different individuals, 
 which are adduced as if they were known only to the 
 objectors, and as if the eminent anatomist who devoted 
 thirty years to the study of the brain and its bony cover- 
 ing had remained quite ignorant of them! If the ob- 
 jectors had read any work upon phrenology, they would 
 have found that this was one of the very earliest of the 
 small difficulties which the phrenologists recognized and 
 overcame, and which every student learns how to allow 
 for; while, if it were a much greater difficulty than it is, 
 it could only affect the practical application of phren- 
 ology in certain cases and to a limited extent, without in 
 
183 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvi. 
 
 any way disturbing its general principles or the vast 
 body of facts on which it is founded. Even so eminent 
 a physiologist and so careful a thinker as the late Pro- 
 fessor Huxley, when I once asked him why he did not 
 accept phrenology as a science, replied at once, " Be- 
 cause, owing to the varying thickness of the skull, the 
 form of the outside does not correspond to that of the 
 brain itself, and therefore the comparative development 
 of different parts of the brain cannot be determined by 
 the form of the skull." To this I replied that the thick- 
 ness of the skull varied at most by a few tenths of an inch, 
 whereas the variations in the dimensions and the form of 
 the head as measured in different diameters varied by 
 whole inches, so that the size and proportions of the head, 
 as measured or estimated by phrenologists, were very 
 slightly affected by the different thicknesses of the skull, 
 which, besides, had been carefully studied by phrenolo- 
 gists as dependent on temperament, age, etc., and could 
 in many cases be estimated. He admitted the correct- 
 ness of this statement, and had really no other objection 
 to make, except by saying that he always understood it 
 had been rejected after full examination (which it cer- 
 tainly had not been), and to ask, if it were true why was 
 it not taught by any man of scientific reputation? 
 
 Almost the only other serious objection is to the de- 
 tailed classification of the mental faculties, and to the 
 names given to the several organs. But such objections 
 exist even in the best established sciences, such as 
 geology, where both classification and nomenclature are 
 continually changing in the effort to approach nearer to 
 the facts of nature. Phrenology is a science of obser- 
 vation as truly as is geology itself; it is a highly complex 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 183 
 
 and difficult study, and it can hardly be supposed that 
 the half-dozen eminent men who established it have ex- 
 hausted its possibilities. The classification, or rather the 
 enumeration of the mental faculties, whose function has 
 been found to be dependent on certain brain-areas, is 
 wholly founded on long-continued observation and com- 
 parison; and there is, of course, room for improvement, 
 founded on further observations. But in this case, the 
 objections of those who classify the mental faculties from 
 their own consciousness are of no avail. Our conscious- 
 ness does not reveal the brain-organs on which the facul- 
 ties depend, and cannot therefore be used to criticise 
 phrenology, which is the science of this dependence. 
 And in like manner the older anatomists, who only dis- 
 sected the brain, had no valid grounds of objection, 
 since, as Combe always urged, " Dissection never reveals 
 functions." 
 
 But while rejecting phrenology, neither anatomists, 
 physiologists, nor anthropologists were able to give us 
 any knowledge of the relations of mind and brain by 
 other means. Enormous collections of skulls were 
 formed; they were figured and accurately measured, 
 were classified as brachycephalic, or dolichocephalic, and 
 in various other ways, but nothing came of it all, except 
 a rough determination of the average size and typical 
 form of skull of the different races of man, with no at- 
 tempt whatever to connect this typical form with the 
 mental peculiarities of the several races. Never perhaps 
 was so much laborious scientific work productive of so 
 inadequate a result. 
 
 But about the year 1870 several Continental physi- 
 ologists, and, in this country. Professor Terrier, began 
 
184 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvi. 
 
 to experiment on the brains of living animals, whicli 
 were excited by weak galvanic currents applied to the 
 exposed surface at different spots, and the resulting visi- 
 ble effects observed. In this way it was found that the 
 excitement of certain limited areas caused the contrac- 
 tion of definite sets of muscles, leading to motion of the 
 limbs, body, face, or head of the animal. This was 
 termed the Localization of Functions of the Brain, and 
 was at once adduced by popular writers as giving the 
 final death blow to phrenology, since it showed (as they 
 ignorantly assumed) that portions of the brain Avhich 
 the phrenologists had alleged to be the organs of purely 
 mental faculties were really only organs of muscular 
 movements. Such writers entirely overlooked the very 
 obvious considerations that the brain may be, in fact 
 must be, the centre for the production of movements as 
 well as for initiating ideas; and that the rude method of 
 exciting the living brain by galvanism was not likely to 
 develop the purely mental phenomena, which, indeed, in 
 the animals experimented on, could only be exhibited 
 through muscular movements. Again, it is quite pos- 
 sible, and even probable, that, while the cortex or gray 
 matter on the surface of the brain is the seat of ideation, 
 the more deeply seated matter may contain the centres 
 for muscular and nervous action, and may be the part 
 which is excited by the galvanic current. But this very 
 fact of the connection of certain definite brain-areas with 
 muscular motion is no new discovery, as modem writers 
 seem to suppose, but was known to Dr. Gall himself, 
 although he did not possess the modern appliances for 
 the full experimental demonstration of it. In one of his 
 first writings upon his discoveries — his letter to Baron de 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OP PHRENOLOGY. 185 
 
 Ketzer upon the " Functions of the Brain in Man and 
 Animals " — he stated that there was a strange communi- 
 cation of the muscles with cerebral organs, adding — 
 " when certain cerebral organs are put in action you are 
 led, according to their seat, to take certain positions, as 
 though you are drawn by a wire, so that one can dis- 
 cover the seat of the acting organs by the motions." 
 This is the natural " expression of the emotions " which 
 was so well- studied by Darwin, bvit which Gall at the 
 end of the last century had already determined to have 
 its seat in the same parts of the brain which originated 
 the emotions themselves. And these facts were well 
 known to all the early students of phrenology. Dr. 
 Davey, of Bristol, stated to the " Bath and Bristol ]\Iedi- 
 cal Association"' in 1874, that in 1842 he was pi-esent 
 at a series of experiments which went to demonstrate, 
 in the most decided and unequivocal manner, that the 
 stimulation of many parts of the cerebrum of man did 
 excite both sensation and motion. He added: " I affirm 
 that twenty-eight years before Ilitzig ascertained and 
 taught the fact as stated, the same was known to the late 
 Dr. Elliotson, to the late Dr. Engledue, and to Messrs. 
 Atkinson and Syme, of London, including others who 
 may be nameless. It is not now, as it was then, so really 
 dangerous to announce the discovery of things new and 
 strange. The present age is, we hope, less illiberal than 
 I knew and even felt it to be at the time referred to. 
 Doctors Hitzig and Ferrier would not be reaping the 
 happy harvest of their very commendable labors if 
 things were not now altered for the better." 
 
 It is clear then that the correspondence of the motor- 
 areas of Ferrier with the phrenological organs of which 
 
186 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvi. 
 
 the particular motions are the natural expression, was 
 discovered hy Gall and was well known to all the early 
 phrenologists; but the modern writers, owing to their 
 ignorance of phrenology, have denied this correspond- 
 ence. Tt has, however, been clearly pointed out by Mr. 
 James Webb, late President of the British Phrenological 
 Association, in his " Phrenological Aspect of Modern 
 Physiological Eesearch " (1890), and bv Dr. Bernard 
 Hollandei-, M. D., at the British Association in 1890, 
 and before the Anthropological Institute in 1889 and 
 18!il.' A few of the examples, beginning ■with those 
 adduced by Dr. Hollander, will be here summarized, but 
 the original papers must be consulted for the full 
 evidence. 
 
 Professor Pen-ier excited a definite portion of the 
 ascending frontal convolution in monkeys and several 
 other animals, which had the effect of elevating the 
 cheeks and angles of the mouth with closure of the eyes. 
 On no other region could the same effect be produced. 
 Now the expression of joy or amiTsemeut is the drawing 
 back the corners of the month, forming an incipient 
 smile. All the authorities agi'ee in this. General 
 paralysis of the insane is almost always accompanied by 
 optimism and constant joyousness, accompanied by de- 
 lusions as to wealth and grandeur ; and the earliest phys- 
 ical symptom of the disease is a trembling at the comers 
 of the mouth and the outer corners of the eyes. jSTow 
 the brain-centre producing these effects corresponds in 
 position to the phrenological organ of Hope, the mani- 
 festation of wliich is cheerfulness and especially cheerful 
 anticipations. 
 
 ' See Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xix. p. 12, and 
 vol. XX. p. 237. 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OP PHRENOLOGY. 187 
 
 Professor Ferrier also discovered a centre for facial 
 movements, and this exactly corresponds with the phren- 
 ological organ of Imitation, which gives the power of 
 mimicry, of which facial expression is the most impor- 
 tant part. 
 
 Another centre was found which produced motions of 
 the tongue, cheek-pouches, and jaws in monkeys, exactly 
 as in tasting ; and this spot corresponds with the organ of 
 Gustativeness, which gives appreciations of flavors, and 
 in its excess makes a man a goui-mand. 
 
 A most remarkable correspondence is that of the organ 
 of Concentrativeness, which gives the power of con- 
 tinued attention to any subject, and is the centre of 
 visual ideation. It is not the centre of vision — that is 
 situated in another part of the brain — but of the power 
 of seeing and attending to definite objects. Its outward 
 manifestation is a fixed gaze; and as sight is by far the 
 most important of the senses as regards giving us knowl- 
 edge of the outer world, concentration of attention would 
 be first developed through vision, and a fixity of gaze has 
 become an outward indication of continuous thought on 
 any subject, even non-visual. The person is said to ex- 
 hibit " rapt attention." 
 
 One more correspondence noted by Dr. Hollander 
 may be given — that of the centre for motions indicating 
 anger with the phrenological organ of Destructiveness. 
 The excitation of this centre caused jackals to retract 
 the ears and spring forward; in cats, opening the mouth, 
 with spitting and lashing the tail — all indications of 
 anger. Now Destructiveness — perhaps badly named — 
 is simply the organ of anger or passion ; and unrestrained 
 passion, whether in children or adults, is usually mani- 
 
188 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap.xvi. 
 
 fested by injury or destruction of the offending object; 
 the child beats or breaks what has hurt it, while the 
 despot tortures or kills the person who seriously angers 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Webb gives illustrations from several other 
 organs, which are equally interesting. When Dr. Ter- 
 rier's centre (1) was excited in monkeys, the animal " ex- 
 tended its legs." This centre is in the position of the 
 phrenological organs of Firmness and Self-esteem, one 
 outward expression of which is the stretching the legs, 
 or putting do'wn the feet with determination, whence has 
 arisen a proverbial expression for obstinacy. Excitation 
 of centre (12) caused the " ej'es to open widely, the 
 pupils to dilate, and head and eyes to turn to the other 
 side." ISTow this centre corresponds to the phrenological 
 organ of Wonder, and nothing could better exjjress won- 
 der than the motions described. Even more curious was 
 the result of exciting the lower part of the inferior 
 occipital convolution of cows and sheep, which " caused 
 uneasy movements of the hind legs and tail, while the 
 animals looked to the opposite hind leg and occasionally 
 uttered a plaintive cry, as if of pain or annoyance." 
 The part excited is the phrenological organ of Philopro- 
 genitiveness or love of offspring, and anyone who has 
 watched a cow whose calf has been taken away, must 
 recognize the accurate description of the motions by 
 which she expresses her feelings. 
 
 Now surely, this close correspondence of " motor- 
 centres " with the phrenological organs of which the 
 actions or motions under excitation are the natural ex- 
 pression, is very remarkable, and affords a new and strik- 
 ing test of the accuracy with which the phrenologists 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 189 
 
 have localized the brain-centres for the various mental 
 faculties. With such confirmation as regards most of 
 the motor-centres yet discovered, the presumption is in 
 favor of the accuracy of the bulk of the j)hrenological 
 organs, more especially as their development also accords 
 with, and explains, national and race character, which 
 neither physiologists nor anthropologists have even at- 
 tempted to do ; while, as regards individual character, the 
 skilled phrenologist has shown that he is able to read it 
 like an open book, and to lay bare the hidden springs of 
 conduct with an accuracy that the most intimate friends 
 of the individual cannot approach. Yet, even now, the 
 advocates of this new and very crude method of brain- 
 study repeat the old vague objections to phrenology, as 
 if they were true and unanswerable. After the reading 
 of Dr. Hollander's first paper at the Anthropological 
 Institute, Professor Ferrier, while complimenting the 
 author, and making no objections to his facts, went on 
 to say : " What we wanted was evidence founded on care- 
 ful investigation according to strictly scientific methods, 
 serving to indicate a relation between the development 
 of particular centres and special mental faculties, apti- 
 tudes, or peculiarities. At present he did not think 
 there was any such worthy of consideration." But were 
 not Gall's and Spurzheim's, and Combe's lifelong in- 
 vestigations " careful," and their methods " scientific " ? 
 And were not their final conclusions justified by that 
 best test of all true theory, the power of prediction of 
 character in its most minute details? Lifelong and 
 class prejudices ahvays die hard, but it is surely now 
 time that this wholly unjustifiable accusation, of phre- 
 nology being " unscientific," should be abandoned, since 
 
190 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 it is really founded on a far more scientific basis than 
 that of the modern school, who, by an utterly unnatural, 
 and therefore " unscientific " mode of exciting the 
 brains of living animals, hope to arrive at a correct 
 knowledge of its varied functions. 
 
 The blinding efl^ect of this prejudice against phre- 
 nology has caused these modern investigators to over- 
 look the circumstance that the often complex motions 
 of difl^erent parts of the body resulting from the stimu- 
 lation of various brain-centres were really the physical 
 expression of mental emotions, and of the very same 
 emotions as those long since assigned to the phreno- 
 logical organs situated in the same pai'ts of the brain. 
 It is also very suggestive that these experiments lead to 
 nothing of value in the hands of the experimenters. To 
 show that the excitation of one brain-centre affects such 
 numerous and varied sets of muscles as are required to 
 cause movements of the hind legs, the tail, the head, and 
 the vocal organs of a cow; while excitation of another 
 centre produces movements of the ear and of all foiu- 
 limbs in a jackal, but of the tail, mouth, and tongue in 
 a not very remote species, the cat — are facts which, 
 standing alone, are unmeaning and worthless. But all 
 these movements and many others become quite intelli- 
 gible when looked upon as not the immediate but the 
 derived effects of the stimulation; being the various 
 modes of expression of the mental emotions which con- 
 stitute the actual functions of the parts excited, and the 
 expression of which varies according to the organization 
 and habits of the several animals. Instead of being, as 
 so often alleged, a disproof of phrenology, or in anv 
 way antagonistic to it, these modern investigations are 
 
CHAP. XVI. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 191 
 
 only intelligible when explained by means of its long- 
 establislieJ facts, and thus really furnish a most striking 
 and most convincing, because wholly unintended, confir- 
 mation of its substantial truth. 
 
 Let us now briefly state the main principles of phre- 
 nology, all at first denied, but all now forming part of 
 recognized science. 
 
 (1) The brain is the organ of the mind. 
 
 This was denied in the Edinbiirgli Review, and even 
 J. S. Mill wrote that " mental phenomena do not admit 
 of being deduced from the physiological laws of our 
 nervous organization." 
 
 (2) Size is, other things being equal, a measure of 
 power. This was at first denied, but is now generally 
 admitted by physiologists. 
 
 (3) The brain is a congeries of organs, each having its 
 appropriate faculty. 
 
 Till a comparatively recent period this was denied, 
 and the brain was said to act as a single organ. Now it 
 is admitted that there are svich separate organs, but it 
 is alleged that they have not yet been discovered. 
 
 (4) The front of the brain is the seat of our percep- 
 tive and reflective faculties; the top, of our higher 
 sentiments; the back and the sides, of our animal in- 
 stincts. 
 
 This was long denied; even the late Dr. W. B. Car- 
 penter maintained that the back of the brain was 
 probably the seat of the intellect! Now, almost all 
 physiologists admit that this general division of brain- 
 organs is correct. 
 
 (5) The form of the skull during life corresponds so 
 closely to that of the brain that it is possible to deter- 
 
192 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 mine the proportionate development of various parts of 
 the latter by an examination of the former. 
 
 The denial of this was, as we have seen, the stock ob- 
 jection to the very possibility of a science of phrenology. 
 Xow it is admitted by all anatomists. The late Pro- 
 fessor George II. ITumphrey, of Cambridge University, 
 in his " Treatise on the Hnman Skeleton " (p. 207), ex- 
 pressly admits the correspondence, adding — " The argu- 
 ments against phrenology must be of a deeper kind than 
 this to convince anyone who has carefully considered 
 the subject." 
 
 It thus ajjpears that the five main contentions of the 
 phrenologists, each of them at first strenuously denied, 
 have now received the assent of the most advanced 
 modern physiologists. But admitting these funda- 
 mental data, it evidently becomes a question solely of a 
 sufficiently extended scries of comparisons of form with 
 facnlty to determine what faculties are constantly asso- 
 ciated with a superior development of any portion of the 
 cranium and of the brain within it. To assert that such 
 comparisons are unscientific, mthout giving solid rea- 
 sons for the assertion, is absiird. The whole question is, 
 arc the}' adequate? And the one test of adequacy is, do 
 they enable the well-instructed student to determine the 
 character of individuals from the form of their skulls, 
 whenever any organ or group of organs are much above 
 or below the average? This test was applied by the early 
 phrenologists in scores, in hundreds, even in thousands 
 of cases, with a marvellous proportion of successful re- 
 sults. The men who first determined the position of 
 each organ only did so after years of observation and 
 hundreds of comparisons of development of organ with 
 
CHAP. xn. THE NEGLECT OF PHRENOLOGY. 193 
 
 manifestation of function. These determinations were 
 nevei- blindly accepted, but were tested by their followers 
 in every possible way, and were only generally admitted 
 when every ordeal had been passed successfully. To 
 reject such determinations without full examination of 
 the evidence in support of them, without applying any of 
 the careful tests which the early phrenologists applied, 
 and on the mere vague allegations of insufficient obser- 
 vation or unscientific method, is itself utterly unscientific. 
 In the coming century Phrenology will assuredly at- 
 tain general acceptance. It will prove itself to be the 
 true science of mind. Its practical uses in education, 
 in self -discipline, in the reformatory treatment of crimi- 
 nals, and in the remedial treatment of the insane, -will 
 give it one of the highest places in the hierarchy of the 
 sciences; and its persistent neglect and obloquy during 
 the last sixty years, M'ill be referred to as an example of 
 the almost incredible narrowness and prejudice which 
 prevailed among men of science at the very time they 
 were making such splendid advances in other fields of 
 thought and discovery. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE OPPOSITION TO HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL KESEAECH. 
 
 Speak gently of the uew-born gift, restrain the scoflf and sneer, 
 And think how much we may not learn is yet around us here ; 
 What paths there are where faith must lead, and knowledge cannot 
 
 share. 
 Though still we tread the devious way, and feel that truth is there. 
 
 —Anon. (1844). 
 
 Sleep, sleep on ! forget thy pain ; 
 
 My hand is on thy brow. 
 My spirit on thy brain ; 
 My pity on thy heart, poor friend ; 
 
 And from my fingers flow 
 The powers of life, and like a sign. 
 
 Seal thee from thine hour of woe. 
 
 — Shelley. 
 
 Although the subjects to be now discussed have made 
 some progress in the last quarter of the century, this 
 was preceded by a long period of ignorance, accom- 
 panied by the most violent opposition, extremely dis- 
 creditable to an age of such general research and free- 
 dom of inquiry in all other branches of human knowl- 
 edge. A brief outline of the nature of this opposition 
 will be interesting; and may serve as a warning to those 
 who still put faith in the denunciations of the public 
 press, or of those writers who pose as authorities without 
 having devoted any serious study to the subject. 
 
 The phenomena of Animal Magnetism, often termed 
 Mesmerism, and now Hypnotism, were discovered by a 
 physician of Vienna named Mesmer about the year 1770. 
 
 194 
 
CHAP. XVII. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 195 
 
 He applied it to tlie treatment of disease, and obtained 
 great popularity in Paris, where lie came to practise. 
 His knowledge of the subject was, however, necessarily 
 limited, and his intei-pretation of the facts often 
 erroneous. A Government Commission was appointed 
 in 1785, consisting of physicians and scientists (including 
 Lavoisier, Franklin, and other eminent men) who, find- 
 ing that many of the phenomena alleged by Mesmer to 
 be due to a special form of magnetism could be pro- 
 duced in the patients by suggestion, reported against his 
 alleged powers, and the subject soon fell into disrepute. 
 
 Early in the present century, however, the phe- 
 nomena again occurred in the practice of some physi- 
 cians in Paris and elsewhere, a few of whom devoted 
 much time to the study, and obtained evidence of the 
 most perfect thought-reading, true clairvoyance, and 
 many other apparently superhuman powers. Many 
 medical men became satisfied of the genuineness of these 
 strange occurrences, and the amount of interest they ex- 
 cited in the scientific and medical worlds is shown by the 
 fact, that the article " ^lagnetisme " in the " Diction- 
 naire de Medecine," published in 1825, treated the sub- 
 ject in a serious spirit, and recognized the whole of its 
 phenomena as being undoubtedly genuine. The writer, 
 Dr. Eostan, declares that he had himself examined a 
 clairvoyante who, when he placed his watch at the back 
 of her head, told the time indicated by it, and even when 
 he turned the hands round without looking at them, was 
 equally successful. 
 
 Of course those who had no opportunity of investigat- 
 ing the subject under favorable conditions, could not 
 accept such marvels, and imputed them to clever trick- 
 
196 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvii. 
 
 ery; and in order to determine authoritatively how much 
 truth there was in the statements of the Animal Mag- 
 netizers, the Aeademie Eoyale de Medecine, in 1826, 
 appointed a committee of eleven membei-s, all, of course, 
 medical men, and presumahly capable and impartial, to 
 inquire into the wliole subject experimentally. ISTine of 
 the members attended the meetings and experiments 
 during five years; and in 1831 they delivered a full and 
 elaborate Iieport, which was signed by the whole nine, 
 and was therefore unanimous. This Keport (published 
 in the " Archives Generale de Medecine," vol. xx.) gives 
 the details of a large number of experiments, and con- 
 cludes with a summary of what was considered to be 
 proved, together with some weighty observations. As 
 this Tleport is very little known, and has been completely 
 ignored by almost all writers adverse to the claims of the 
 niagnetizers, I will give some of the more important por- 
 tions of it, as translated by Dr. Lee in his work on Ani- 
 mal Magnetism. 
 
 Report of the Commission of the Aeademie Royale 
 de Medecine on Animal Magnetism. 
 
 " Conclusions and General Kemarks. 
 " The commission has reported with impartiality that 
 which it had seen with distrust; it has exposed method- 
 ically that which it has observed under different circum- 
 stances, and which it has followed up with an attention 
 as close as it is continued. It has the consciousness that 
 the statements which it presents to you are the faithful 
 expression of that which it has observed. The obstacles 
 which it has met with are known to you ; they ai'e partly 
 the cause of the delay which has occurred in presenting 
 
CHAP. sTu. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 197 
 
 the report, although we have long been in possession of 
 the materials. We are, however, far from excusing our- 
 selves, or from complaining of this delay, since it gives 
 to our observations a character of maturity and reserve 
 which should lead you to confide in the facts which we 
 have related, without the charge of prepossession and en- 
 thusiasm with which you might have reproached us if we 
 had only recently collected them. We add that we are 
 far from thinking that we have seen all that is to be seen, 
 and we do not pretend to lead you to admit as an axiom 
 that there is nothing positive in magnetism beyond what 
 we mention in our report. Far from placing hmits to 
 this part of physiological science, we entertain, on the 
 contrary, the hope that a new field is opened to it; and 
 guaranteeing our own observations, presenting them 
 with confidence to those who, after us, will occupy them- 
 selves, with magnetism, we restrict ourselves to drawing 
 the following conclusions, which are the necessary con- 
 sequence of the facts the totality of which constitutes our 
 report." 
 
 A considerable proportion of these " conclusions " re- 
 lates to points which are either imimportant or now xin- 
 disputed, such as the mode of magnetizing, the propor- 
 tion of persons who can be magnetized, the influence of 
 expectation, the A-ariety of the phenomena produced, the 
 possibility of simulation, the nature of the magnetic 
 sleep, the therapeutic effects produced and their impor- 
 tance, and other similar points. The following para- 
 graphs give the more important of the " conclusions " 
 referring to those points which are still doubted or de- 
 nied by a considerable number of men of science, 
 
198 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvii. 
 
 " It has been demonstrated to us that the magnetic 
 sleep may be produced under circumstances in which the 
 magnetized have not been able to perceive, and have 
 been ig-norant of, the means employed to occasion it." 
 
 "When a person has been already magnetized, it is not 
 always necessary to have recourse to contact, or to the 
 ' passes,' in order to magnetize afresh. The look of the 
 magnetizer, his will alone, has often the same influence. 
 In this case one cannot only act upon the magnetized, 
 but throw him completely into the sleep, and awaken 
 him from this state without his being aware of it, out of 
 his sight, at a certain distance, and through closed 
 doors." 
 
 " We have seen two somnambulists distinguish with 
 closed eyes the objects placed before them; they have 
 designated, ivithout touching them, the color and name of 
 cards; they have read words written, or lines from a 
 book. This phenomenon has occiirred even when the 
 eyelids ivere Irpt closed by the fingers." 
 
 " We have met with two somnambulists ^vlio possessed 
 the faculty of foreseeing acts of the organism, more or 
 less distinct, more or less complicated." 
 
 " We have only met with one somnambulist who could 
 indicate the symptoms of the diseases of three persons 
 with whom she was placed in relation. We had, how- 
 ever, made researches on a considerable number." 
 
 " The commission could not verify, because it had no 
 opportunity, the other faculties which magnetizers had 
 stated to exist in somnambulists. But it has collected, 
 and it communicates to the Academy, facts sufficiently 
 
CHAP. XVII. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 199 
 
 important to induce it to think that the Academy ought 
 to encourage researches on magnetism as a very curious 
 branch of psychology and natural history. 
 
 " Certainly we dare not flatter ourselves that we shall 
 make you share entirely our conviction of the reality of 
 the phenomena which we have observed, and which you 
 have neither seen, nor followed, nor studied with or in 
 opposition to us. We do not therefore exact from you 
 a blind belief in all that we have reported. We con- 
 ceive that a greater part of the facts are so extraordinary 
 that you cannot grant it to us: perhaps we oiirselves 
 should have refused you our belief, if, changing places, 
 you had come to announce them before this tribunal to 
 us, who, like jow at present, had seen nothing, observed 
 nothing, studied nothing, followed nothing of them. 
 
 " We only require yiiu to judge \is as we should have 
 judged you, that is to say, that you remain perfectly 
 convinced that neither the love of the Avonderful, nor 
 the desire of celebrity, nor any interest whatever, has in- 
 fluenced our labors. We were animated by motives 
 more elevated, more worthy of you — by the love of 
 science and by the wish to justify the hopes which the 
 Academy had conceived of our zeal and devotedness." 
 " (Signed) Bouedois de la Motte (President), 
 
 FODQUIEE, 
 
 GUENEAU DE MuSSY, 
 
 guersent, 
 
 Itaed, 
 
 LEROtrx, 
 
 Maec, 
 
 Thillage, 
 
 HussoN (Reporter)." 
 
200 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xtii. 
 
 It is hardly possible to have a weightier or more trust- 
 worthy report than this one, sho^^•ing in every line the 
 care and deliberation of the members of the commission, 
 while their competence and honesty are above suspicion. 
 The same general conclusions as to the reality and impor- 
 tance of animal magnetism were arrived at by some of 
 the most eminent physicians in Russia, Denmark, 
 Saxony, and other countries; while the entire report of 
 the French Commission was translated into English 
 in 1836, and pubHshed in Mr. Colquhoun's " Isis 
 Revelata." 
 
 In 1837, however, in consequence of many accounts 
 of clairvoyance then occurring in various parts of 
 France, the Academic de Medecine offered a prize of 
 three thousand francs to anyone who should prove his 
 ability to read without use of the eyes. The daughter 
 of a physician at Montpelier — Dr. Pigeaire — possessed 
 this power, as testified by many persons of repute; and, 
 in consequence of this offer, he brought her to Paris. 
 Many persons saw her in private, and several physicians 
 — ]\IM. Orfila, Ribes, Reveille-Parise and others — certi- 
 fied the fact of her clairvoyant powers. But the mem- 
 bei's appointed by the Academy — less experienced than 
 those of the Commission of 1831 — began by making 
 stipulations as to the complete enclosure of the clair- 
 voyante's head, to which her father would not consent, 
 and thus the o])])ortunity of officially testing this lady 
 was lost.^ Others jiresented themselves, but none suc- 
 
 ' The inelliod usually adopted was to bind a linen cloth over the 
 eyes, to cover this -with cotton-wool, and over all a black velvet 
 mask; which was held to be a complete test by Arago and other 
 observers. Tliis, however, the coniniissipncfs -ffoulcl not even try. 
 
cHAi.. XVII. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 201 
 
 ceeded. The result was therefore piirely negative; but 
 as there were in some cases suspicions of imposture or 
 attempts at imposture, the report was, of course, against 
 the existence of clairvoyance. This was .only what 
 might have been anticipated by all who had really inves- 
 tigated the subject. Professor William Gregory, of the 
 University of Edinburgh, after twenty years' study of 
 animal magnetism and an extensive personal experience, 
 wrote as follows : 
 
 " In regard to clairvoyance, I have never seen it satis- 
 factorily exhibited except quite in private; and in this 
 point my experience has simply confirmed the statements 
 made by the best observers. I feel confident that every- 
 one who chooses to devote some time and labor to the in- 
 vestigation ma3' meet with it, either in his own cases or 
 those of his friends." 
 
 In his " Letters on Animal ]\Iagnetism " Professor 
 Gregory gives several indisputable cases tested by him- 
 self. Dr. Haddock, Major Buckley, Sir Walter Trevel- 
 yan. Miss Martineau, Dr. Esdaile, Dr. Lee, and Dr. 
 Elliotson, have all obtained evidence of the most con- 
 vincing kind, much of which has been published; while 
 many eminent physicians and men of science on the Con- 
 tinent obtained eqvially convincing results — all confirm- 
 ing the positive evidence of the French Commission of 
 1831, and proving that the negative results of the Com- 
 mission of 1837 were due to the inexperience and preju- 
 dices of the members. Yet, notwithstanding this 
 cumulative proof, modern writers against the higher 
 phenomena produced by hypnotism appear to be either 
 totally ignorant of the existence of the five yeare' inquiry 
 and elaborate report of the first commission of the 
 
202 THE WONDERFUL CENTtJRY. 
 
 Academie de Medecine, or confound it with the second 
 commission, which gave a purely negative report on one 
 Hmited phase of the phenomena! 
 
 Thus,^he late Dr. W. B. Carpenter, in his volume on 
 " Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc., Historically and Scien- 
 ficially Considered" (Longmans, 1877), writes as follows: 
 
 " It was in France that the pretensions of mesmeric 
 clairvoyance were first advanced; and it was by the 
 French Academy of Medicine, in which the mesmeric 
 state had been previously discussed with reference to the 
 performance of surgical operations, that this new and 
 more extraordinary claim was first carefully sifted, in 
 consequence of the offer made in 1837 by M. Burdin 
 (himself a member of that Academy) of a prize of 3000 
 francs to anyone who should be found capable of read- 
 ing through opaque substances." 
 
 Neither here, nor in any part of his volume, does Dr. 
 Carpenter show any knowledge of the existence of the 
 Commission of 1825-31, which really "first carefully 
 sifted " the varied phenomena of Animal Magnetism, 
 including numerous cases of clairvoyance, and decided 
 that they were genuine. 
 
 In the last edition of Chambers' " Encyclopaedia," a 
 publication remarkable for the great ability of its con- 
 tributors and the impartial treatment of disputed ques- 
 tions, we find in the article " Animal Magnetism " the 
 following passage: "Despite the unfavorable report of 
 the French Commission of 1785, as well as of a later one 
 in 1831, and other subsequent exposures" . . . indi- 
 cating that the writer was unacquainted with the favor- 
 able report of 1831, and confused it with the negative 
 report of 1837-40. And this ignorance is confirmed by 
 
CHAP. XVII. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 203 
 
 the statement, a little further on, that " no scientific 
 observer has yet confirmed the statements of mesmerists 
 as to clairvoyance, reading of sealed letters, influence on 
 unconscious persons at a distance, or the like " — a state- 
 ment the exact opposite of the fact, since the nine mem- 
 bers of the commission of the Academy of Medicine, 
 Professor Gregory and the other gentlemen mentioned 
 above, as well as a large number of ])hysicians and others 
 on the Continent, must surely be held to be, individually 
 and as a whole, " scientific observers," or the term can 
 have no meaning. Biichner, Spitta, and other antago- 
 nistic Continental writers, also appealed to the commis- 
 sion of 1784 as ha^^ing exposed " the swindle of magnetic 
 cures," apparently in complete ignorance of the report 
 of 1831; and Biichner also refers to the commission of 
 1837 as reporting against clairvoyance, without any 
 reference to the more weighty report of 1831 in its favor. 
 One more example as to the mode of treatment of evi- 
 dence for the reality of clairvoyance. Dr. Carpenter 
 describes some of his own visits to Alexis and Adolphe 
 Didier, accompanied by Dr. Forbes; and because they 
 saw nothing which was to them absolutely conclusive, he 
 leads the reader to think that nothing really conclusive 
 had ever been obtained. But Dr. Lee, a physician of 
 repute, and therefore presumably as good a witness as 
 Dr. Carpenter or Dr. Forbes, in his well-known work 
 on Animal Magnetism, devotes twenty-two pages to an 
 account of his own personal experiments with Alexis at 
 Brighton in 1849, including such a number and variety 
 of striking tests as to entirely outweigh any number of 
 negative results like those of Dr. Carpenter. And in 
 addition to these, other special tests of the most stringent 
 
g04 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvn. 
 
 character have been published, two of which may be 
 here given. Sergeant Cox, in his " What Am I? " (vol. 
 ii. p. 176) describes a test by a party of experts, of whom 
 he was one. A word was written by a friend in a distant 
 town, and enclosed in an envelope, without any one of 
 the party knozuing ivhat the word was. This envelope 
 was enclosed successively in six others of thick brown 
 paper, each sealed. This packet was handed to Alexis, 
 who placed it on his forehead, and in three minutes and 
 a half wrote the contents correctly, imitating the very 
 handwriting. Let anyone compare Dr. Carpenter's ex- 
 planation of how he supposed such readings were done, 
 and he will see how completely inadequate it is as apply- 
 ing to tests such as that of Sergeant Cox and scores of 
 other inquirers. 
 
 The next test is furnished by the experience of the 
 greatest of modern professional conjurers, Houdin, who, 
 at the request of the Marquis de Mirville, had two sit- 
 tings with Alexis. His account, as quoted by Dr. Lee, 
 is as follows. After describing what took place at the 
 first sitting, he says: " I cannot help declaring that the 
 facts here reported are perfectly exact, and that the 
 more I reflect upon them, the more impossible do I find 
 it to class them with those which constitute the object of 
 my art." (May 10, 1849.) 
 
 " At the second seance I witnessed still more surpris- 
 ing events than at the first, and they no longer leave any 
 doubt in my mind respecting the clairvoyance of Alexis. 
 I tear off the envelope of a pack of cards I brought with 
 me. I shuffle and deal with every precaution, which, 
 however, is useless, for Alexis stopped me by naming a 
 card which I had just placed before him on the table. 
 
CHAP. XVII. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 206 
 
 ' I have the king,' said he. ' But you know nothing 
 about it, as the trump card is not turned iip.' ' You will 
 see,' he replied; ' go on.' In fact, I turned up the ace 
 of spades, and his card was the king of spades. The 
 game was continued; he told me the cards which I should 
 play, though my cards were held closely in my hands be- 
 neath the table. To each of the cards I played he fol- 
 lowed suit, witJioid turning tip his cards, which were 
 always perfectly in accordance with those I led. I 
 therefore returned from this seance as astonished as one 
 can be, and I am con\dnced that it is quite impossible 
 that chance, or any superior skill, could produce such 
 wonderful results." (May 16, 1849.) 
 
 Now the point which I wish to submit to my readers 
 is, whether the method of argument and discussion 
 adopted by the most eminent opponents of Animal Mag- 
 netism is either honest, or scientific, or even rational. 
 "VVe do not ask them to accept blindly any of the facts 
 reported, or to refrain from any criticism, however se- 
 vere, which is founded upon a fair consideration of all 
 the available evidence. But in this matter, as I have 
 here shown by a few striking examples, the public mind 
 is influenced by the omission to state the case fairly ; by 
 putting forth the weakest instead of the strongest facts 
 and arguments; and by the denial that any good and 
 trustworthy evidence exists. What should we think of 
 the man who discussed any of the disputed questions of 
 recognized science in this way? who either ignorantly or 
 wilfully omitted all reference to the most careful re- 
 searches of the most eminent writers on the subject; and, 
 while professing to instruct and enlighten the public, led 
 them to believe that such researches did not exist? 
 
206 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Siich a man would at once lose all claim to be considered 
 an authority on any subject, and his future writings 
 would be treated with deserved neglect. It is because, 
 during the greater part of the century, this most impor- 
 tant and most interesting enquiry has been treated in so 
 unworthy a manner by men of reputation in other de- 
 partments of research, that we are compelled to class the 
 opposition to the phenomena of mesmerism, and espe- 
 cially to the reality of clairvoyance, as constituting one 
 of the exceptions to the steady march of most branches 
 of science throughout the century. 
 
 We now come to the consideration of a practical ap- 
 plication of animal magnetism, the opposition to which 
 was even more virulent and more unjustifiable than that 
 just described. The subject of Mesmerism, as it began 
 to be termed, was first introduced into this country by 
 Mr. Richard Chene^ax, a Fellow of the Eoyal Society, 
 who published a series of papers in the Londoii Medical 
 and Physical Journal in 1829. He also exhibited the 
 phenomena to numerous medical men, among others to 
 Dr. Elliotson, who afterward became one of the chief 
 teachers of the science. The Professor of Physiology 
 at King's College (Dr. Mayo) also upheld and wrote upon 
 it in the medical journels. Baron Dupotet came to Lon- 
 don and again demonstrated the main facts, as did num- 
 bers of public lecturers, affording ample opportunities 
 for experiment and observation. 
 
 In 1829 M. Cloquet, one of the most eminent sur- 
 geons of Paris, amputated a cancerous breast during the 
 mesmeric sleep, the patient being entirely insensible to 
 pam, although able to converse. Teeth were extracted, 
 and many other operations, some very serious, such as 
 
CHAP. xvii. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 207 
 
 the extirpation of a portion of the lower jaw in the hos- 
 pital of Cherbourg, were performed in France. About 
 twelve years later, operations in the mesmeric trance 
 began to be performed in England ; but, notwithstanding 
 the numerous cases already reported from France, sup- 
 porting the fact of insensibility to pain, as fully de- 
 scribed by the Academy of Medicine, they were received 
 with general incredulity by the medical profession, while 
 the most outrageous accusations were made against all 
 who took part in them. 
 
 On the 22d of November, 1842, at the Royal Medical 
 and Chirurgical Society of London, an account was read 
 of the amputation of the thigh during the mesmeric 
 trance. The patient was a laborer who had suffered for 
 five years with neglected disease of the left knee, the 
 slightest motion of the joint being attended with extreme 
 pain. Before the operation he had had no sleep for 
 three nights. He was mesmerized by Mr. W. Topham, 
 a barrister, and operated upon by Mr. W. Squire Ward, 
 surgeon, in the District Hospital of WelloAV, ISTotting- 
 hamshire. During the whole operation, lasting twenty 
 minutes, the patient remained in perfect repose, the 
 placid countenance never changing, while no muscle of 
 the body or limbs was seen to twitch. He awoke gradu- 
 ally and calmly, and on being questioned, declared that 
 he knew nothing that was being done, and had felt no 
 pain at all. He recovered perfectly, and had not a 
 single bad symptom. 
 
 Then followed a violent discussion. Mr. Coulson said 
 the non-expression of pain was a common thing, and he 
 had no doubt the man had been trained to it. Several 
 declared that the man shammed. One declared he 
 
SOS THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap xvu. 
 
 would not have believed the facts had be witnessed 
 them! Then the great men of the profession spoke. 
 Dr. Marshall Hall, the investigator of reflex-action, de- 
 clared that it was a case of imposition, because the sound 
 leg should have contracted when the diseased leg was 
 cut. The case, therefore, contradicted itself. Sir 
 Benjamin Brodie believed that the man must have been 
 naturally insusceptible of pain. He also agreed with 
 Dr. ]\Iarshall Hall that the other leg ought to have 
 moved, and he was quite satisfied with the two French 
 reports against mesmerism. Mr. Listen and Mr. 
 Bransby Cooper made fun of the subject; but Dr. Mayo 
 declared it was a paper of great importance, and should 
 not be ridiculed. Mr. ^Vood, who had assisted at the 
 amputation, vouched for the complete accuracy of the 
 whole account, and pointed out that before the operation 
 the patient had suffered intense pain, and that during 
 the operation he not only showed no sign of pain, but no 
 sign of resistance to the expression of pain. Dr. Elliot- 
 son also pointed out the illogical nature of the objection; 
 but the opponents, who were all completely ignorant of 
 the subject, at the next meeting refused confirmation of 
 the minutes, which were therefore expunged! 
 
 Here we have extreme ignorance in high places, deny- 
 ing facts which had been observed again and again by 
 men as honest and trustworthy as themselves. It was 
 these men, and others equally ignorant, who accused the 
 operators of bribing their patients not to exhibit pain; 
 who accused Dr. Elliotson of " polluting the temple of 
 science ''; and who ejected this eminent physician from 
 his professorship in the University of London, because 
 he persisted in studying the phenomena of mesmerism 
 
CHAP. XVII. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 209 
 
 and in publishing the results of his experiments. He 
 was, however, soon justified in the eyes of all the more 
 honest members of the profession by the publication of 
 so many cases of painless operations as to compel their 
 acceptance as facts ; ^ while he was supported by Dr. 
 Esdaile, who gave an account of more than 300 opera- 
 tions performed by himself and other surgeons in the 
 hospitals of Calcutta, which were confirmed by a com- 
 mission appointed to inqviire into them by the Bengal 
 Government, and by the Governor-General himself. 
 The reports of these cases showed that the patients were 
 equally subject to the charge of imposition because they 
 did not exhibit reflex-action in the opposite limb; and 
 Dr. Elliotson made this point the subject of some justi- 
 fiable ridicule. He says: "It is really lamentable to 
 know that this Asiatic practised imposition as boldly as 
 the female in Europe. The Indian was convicted 
 through the self-same piece of ignorance. He too was 
 unaware that he ought to have moved his right elbow- 
 joint, if he felt nothing while his left was being cut off; 
 and so he did not stir it. The dark races are just as 
 wicked and just as ignorant of physiology as the white." 
 The facts, however, accumulated so rapidly and were 
 so well attested, that a few years later Dr. Noble, Sir 
 John Forbes, and Dr. W. B. Carpenter accepted them; 
 thus admitting tliat the great men who denied them were 
 wholly in the wrong, and that they had displayed igno- 
 rance and prejudice in their accusations of imposture and 
 bad faith. But just when the great importance of mes- 
 
 " ' Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations without Paia in the 
 Ide^mermic State," by Jojiu EUiotson, M. P., F. R. 8-, London, 1843, 
 
310 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvii. 
 
 merism in rendering the most serious operations painless, 
 and at the same time greatly assisting the patient's re- 
 covery, was fully acknowledged, the discovery of anaes- 
 thetics occurred ; and this physiological agent, being more 
 easy to apply and more certain to act upon all patients, 
 soon led to the neglect of mesmerism. With this neg- 
 lect the old prejudices and incredulity revived; and, 
 although its soothing and remedial influence in disease 
 was quite as well established as its use in surgery, it soon 
 fell into disuse, and the great majority of medical men 
 came to look upon it as either disreputable or altogether 
 a delusion. For nearly half a century it remained in 
 abeyance, till its study was revived in the French hospi- 
 tals, where all the phenomena described by the early 
 mesmerizers have been re-observed, together with some 
 others even more extraordinary. 
 
 During the latter portion of the century, the study of 
 these and other obscure psychical phenomena has be- 
 come more extended, and in every dualized country 
 societies have been formed for investigation, and many 
 remarkable works have been published. One after an- 
 other, facts, long denied as delusions or exaggerations, 
 have been admitted to be realities. The stigmata, which 
 at different times have occurred in Catholic countries, 
 are no longer sneered at as priestly impostures. 
 Thought-transference, automatic writing, trance-speak- 
 ing, and clairvoyance, have been all demonstrated in the 
 presence of living observers of undoubted ability and 
 knowledge, as they were demonstrated to the observers 
 of the early part of the century and carefully recorded 
 by them. The still more extraordinary phenomena — 
 veridical hallucinations, warnings, detailed predictions 
 
CHAP. XVII. HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH. 311 
 
 of future events, phantoms, voices or knockings, visible 
 or audible to numerous individuals, bell-ringing, the 
 playing on musical instruments, stone-throwing, and 
 various movements of solid bodies, all without human 
 contact or any discoverable physical cause — still -occur 
 among us as they have occurred in all ages. These are 
 now being investigated, and slowly but surely are proved 
 to be realities, although the majority of scientific men 
 and of writers for the press still ignore the cumulative 
 evidence, and ridicule the inquirers. These phenomena, 
 being comparatively rare, are as yet known to but a 
 limited number of persons; but the evidence for their 
 reality is already very extensive, and it is absolutely cer- 
 tain that, during the coming century, they too will be 
 accepted as realities by all impartial students and by the 
 majority of educated men and women. 
 
 The great lesson to be learnt from our review of this 
 subject is, distrust of all a priori judgments as to facts; 
 for the whole history of the progress of human knowl- 
 edge, and especially of that department of knowledge 
 now known as psychical research, renders it certain that, 
 whenever the scientific men or popular teachers of any 
 age have denied, on a priori grounds of impossibility or 
 opposition to the " laws of nature," the facts observed 
 and recorded by numerous investigators of average 
 honesty and intelligence, these deniers have always been 
 lurong} 
 
 Future ages will, I believe, be astonished at the vast 
 amount of energy and ignorance displayed by so many of 
 
 ' For a discussion of tiiis point, witli illustrative cases, see my 
 "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism," pp. 17-29. 
 
312 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xth. 
 
 the great men of this century in opposing unpalatable 
 truths, and m supposing that a priori arguments, accu- 
 sations of imposture or insanity, or personal abuse, were 
 the proper means of determining matters of fact and of 
 observation in any department of human knowledge. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 VACCINATION A DELUSION ITS PENAL ENFORCEMENT A 
 
 CKIME. 
 
 To-day, in all its dimpled bloom, 
 
 The rosy darling crows with glee; 
 To-morrow, in a darkened room, 
 
 A pallid, wailing infant see. 
 Whose every vein, from head to heel. 
 
 Ferments with poison from my steel. 
 
 — A. H. Hume. 
 
 Against the body of a healthy man Parliament has no right of 
 assault whatever, under pretence of the public health; nor any the 
 more against the body of a healthy infant. 
 
 — Professor F. W. Newman. 
 
 I. 
 
 VACCINATION AND SMALL-POX. 
 
 Among the greatest self-created scourges of civilized 
 humanity are the group of zymotic diseases, or those 
 which arise from infection, and are believed to be due to 
 the agency of minute organisms which rapidly increase 
 in bodies offering favorable conditions, and often cause 
 death. Such diseases are: plague, small-pox, measles, 
 whooping-cough, yellow fever, typhus and enteric fevers, 
 scarlet fever and diphtheria, and cholera. The condi- 
 tions which especially favor these diseases are foul air 
 and water, decaying organic matter, overcrowding, and 
 other unwholesome surroundings, whence they have been 
 termed " filth diseases." The most terrible and fatal of 
 these — the plague — prevails only where people live 
 
 813 
 
214 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xTin. 
 
 under the very worst sanitary conditions as regards ven- 
 tilation, water supply, and general cleanliness. Till 
 about 250 years ago it was as common in England as 
 small-pox lias been during the present century, but a 
 very partial and limited advance in healthy conditions 
 of life entirely abolished it, its place being to some 
 extent taken by small-pox, cholera, and fevers. The 
 exact mode by which all these diseases spread is not 
 known; cholera, diphtheria, and enteric fever are be- 
 lieved to be communicated through the dejecta from 
 the patient contaminating drinking water. The other 
 diseases are spread either by bodily contact or by trans- 
 mission of germs through the air; but with all of them 
 there must be conditions favoring their reception and 
 increase. Not only are many persons apparently insus- 
 ceptible through life to some of these diseases, but all 
 the evidence goes to show that, if the whole population 
 of a country lived under thoroughly healthy conditions 
 as regards pure air, pure water, and wholesome food, 
 none of them could ever obtain a footing, and they would 
 die out as completely as the plague and leprosy have 
 died out, though both were once so prevalent in 
 England. 
 
 But during the last century there was no such knowl- 
 edge, and no general belief in the efficacy of simple, 
 healthy conditions of life as the only effectual safeguard 
 against these diseases. Small-pox, although then, as 
 now, an epidemic disease and of very varying degrees 
 of virulence, was much dreaded, because, owing chiefly 
 to improper treatment, it was often fatal, and still more 
 often produced disfigurement or even blindness. When, 
 therefore, the method of inoculation was introduced 
 
CHAP. xTiii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 215 
 
 from the East in the early part of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, it was quickly welcomed, because a mild form of 
 the disease was produced which rarely caused death or 
 disfigurement, though it was believed to be an effectual 
 protection against taking the disease by ordinary infec- 
 tion. It was, however, soon found that the mild small- 
 pox usually produced by inoculation was quite as infec- 
 tious as the natural disease, and became quite as fatal 
 to persons who caught it. Toward the end of the last 
 century many medical men became so impressed with its 
 danger that they advocated more attention to sanitation 
 and the isolation of patients, because inoculation, though 
 it may have saved individuals, really increased the total 
 deaths from small-pox. 
 
 Under these circumstances we can well understand 
 the favorable reception given to an operation which 
 produced a slight, non-infectious disease, which yet was 
 alleged to protect against small-pox as completely as did 
 the inoculated disease itself. This was Vaccination, 
 which arose from the belief of farmers in Gloucester- 
 shire and elsewhere that those who had caught cow-pox 
 from cows were free from small-pox for the rest of their 
 lives. Jenner, in 1798, published his " Inquiry," gi'V'ing 
 an account of the facts which, in his opinion, proved 
 this to be the case. But in the light of our present 
 knowledge we see that they are wholly inconclusive. 
 Six of his patients had had cow-pox when young, and 
 were inoculated with small-pox in the usual way from 
 twenty-one to fifty-three years afterward, and because 
 they did not take the disease, he concluded that the cow- 
 pox had preserved them. But we know that a consid- 
 erable proportion of persons in middle age are insus- 
 
216 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. cHiP. xtiii. 
 
 ceptible to small-pox infection; besides wliicli, even 
 those who most strongly uphold vaccination now admit 
 that its eflPeets die out entirely in a few years — some say 
 four or five, some ten — so that these people who had 
 had cow-pox so long before were certainly not protected 
 by it from taking small-pox. Several other patients 
 Avere farriers or stable men who were infected by horse- 
 grease, not by cow-pox, and were also said to be insus- 
 ceptible to small-pox inoculation, though not so com- 
 pletely as those who had had cow-pox. The remainder 
 of Tenner's cases were six children, from five to eight 
 years old, who were vaccinated, and then inoculated a 
 few weeks or months aftenvard. These cases are fal- 
 lacious from tAvo causes. In the first place, any remnant 
 of the effects of the vaccination (Avhich were sometimes 
 severe), or the existence of scurA^y, then very prevalent, 
 or of any other skin-disease, might prevent the test- 
 inoculation from piTtducing any effect.' The other 
 
 ' Professor Crookshank, in his evidence before tlie Royal Commis- 
 sion (4tii Report, Q. 11,729), quotes Dr. De HaPn, a writer on Inocu- 
 lation, as saying: " Astlima, consumption, hectic or slow fever of 
 any kind, internal ulcers, obstructed glands, obstructions of the 
 viscera from fevers, scrofula, scurvy, itch, eruptions, local intlamma- 
 tions or pains of any kind, debility, suppressed or irregular menslru- 
 ation, chlorosis, jaundice, pregnancy, lues renrrra. whether in tlic 
 parent or transmitted to the child, and m constitution under the 
 strong influence of mercury, prevented the operation." There is no 
 evidence tliat those who applied the so-called "variolous test" in the 
 early days of vaccination paid any attention to this long list of ail- 
 ments, many of which were very prevalent at the time, and which 
 would, in the opinion of De HaSu, and of the English writer Sanders, 
 who quotes him, have prevented the action of the virus, and thus 
 rendered the " test " entirely fallacious. With such oau.scs as these, 
 added to those already discussed, it becomes less difficult to under- 
 stand how it was that the alleged lest was Ihought to prove the influ- 
 ence of the previous vaccination willioul really doing so. 
 
CHAP. xvni. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 217 
 
 cause of uncertainty arises from the fact that this " vari- 
 olous test " consisted in inoculating with small-pox virus 
 obtained from the last of a series of successix'e patients 
 in whom the effect produced was a minimum, consisting 
 of very few pustules, sometimes only one, and a v(;ry 
 slight amount of fever. The results of this test, whetlier 
 on a person who had had cow-pox or who had not had it, 
 were usually so slight that it could easily be described by 
 a believer in the influence of the one disease on the other 
 as having " no effect " ; and Dr. Creighton declares, 
 after a study of the whole literature of the subject, that 
 the description of the results of the test is almost always 
 loose and general, and that in the few cases where more 
 detail is given the symptoms described are almost the 
 same in the vaccinated as in the Tinvaccinated. Again, 
 no careful tests were ever made by inoculating at the 
 same time, and in exactly the same way, two groups of 
 persons of similar age, constitution, and health, the one 
 group having been vaccinated, the other not, and none 
 of them having had small-pox, and then having the 
 resulting effects carefully described and compared by 
 independent experts. Such " control " experiments 
 would not be required in any case of such importance as 
 this; but it was never done in the early days of vaccina- 
 tion, and it appears never to have been done to this day. 
 The alleged " test " was, it is true, applied in a great 
 number of cases by the early observers, especially by 
 Dr. Woodville, physician to a small-pox hospital; but 
 Dr. Creighton shows reason for believing that the lymph 
 he used was contaminated with small-pox, and that the 
 supposed vaccinations were really inoculations. This 
 lymph was widely spread all over the country, and was 
 
218 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvm. 
 
 supplied to Jenner himself, and we thus have explained 
 the effect of the " vaccination " in preventing the sub- 
 sequent " inoculation " from producing much effect, 
 since both were really mild forms of small-pox inocula- 
 tion. This matter is fully explained by Dr. Creighton in 
 his evidence before the Royal Commission, printed in the 
 Second Report. Professor E. M. Crookshank, who has 
 made a special study of cow-pox and other animal diseases 
 and their relation to human small-pox, gives important 
 confirmatory evidence, to be found in the Fourth Report. 
 This brief statement of the early history of vaccina- 
 tion has been introduced here in order to give what seems 
 to be a probable explanation of the remarkable fact that 
 a large portion of the medical profession accepted, as 
 proved, that vaccination protected against a subsequent 
 inoculation of small-pox, when in reality there was no 
 such proof, as the subsequent history of small-pox epi- 
 demics has shown. The medical and other members of 
 the Royal Commission could not realize the possibility 
 of such a failure to get at the truth. Again and again 
 they asked the witnesses above referred to to explain how 
 it was possible that so many ediTcated specialists could 
 be thus deceived. They overlooked the fact that a cen- 
 tury ago was, as regai-ds the majority of the medical 
 profession, a pre-scientific age; and nothing proves this 
 more clearly than the absence of any systematic " con- 
 trol " experiments, and the extreme haste with which 
 some of the heads of the profession expressed their belief 
 in the lifelong protection against small-pox afforded by 
 vaccination, only four years after the discovery had been 
 first announced. This testimony caused Parliament to 
 vote Jenner £10,000 in 1802. 
 
cHAP.xvni. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 219 
 
 Ample proof now exists of the fallacy of this belief, 
 since vaccination gives no protection (except perhaps for 
 a month or two) as will be shown later on. Bnt there 
 was also no lack of proof in the first ten years of the 
 centiiry; and had it not been for the unscientific haste of 
 the medical witnesses to declare that vaccination pro- 
 tected against small-pox during a whole lifetime — a fact 
 of which they had not and could not possibly have any 
 evidence — this proof of failure would have convinced 
 them and have prevented what is really one of the scan- 
 dals of the nineteenth centiu'y. These early proofs of 
 failure will be now briefly indicated. 
 
 Only six years after the announcement of vaccina- 
 tion, in 1 804, Dr. B. Moseley, Physician to Chelsea Hos- 
 pital, published a small book on the cow-pox, containing 
 many cases of persons who had been properly vaccinated 
 and had afterward had small-pox; and other cases of 
 severe illness, injury, and even death resulting from vac- 
 cination; and these failures were admitted by the Royal 
 Jennerian Society in their Report in 1806. Dr. Wil- 
 liam Rowley, Physician to the St. Marylebone Infirm- 
 ary, in a work on "Cow-pox Inoculation" in 1805, which 
 reached a third edition in 1806, gave particulars of 504 
 cases of small-pox and injury after vaccination, with 
 seventy-five deaths. He says to his brother medical 
 men: " Come and see. I have lately had some of the 
 worst species of malignant small-pox in the Marylebone 
 Infirmary, which many of the faculty have examined 
 and know to have been vaccinated." For two days he 
 had an exhibition in his Lecture Room of a number of 
 children suffering from terrible eruptions and other 
 diseases after vaccination. 
 
220 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY chap, xtiii. 
 
 Dr. Squirrel, formerly Resident Apothecary to tlie 
 Small-pox Inoculation Hospital, also published in 1805 
 numerous eases of small-pox, injuries, and death after 
 vaccination. 
 
 John Birch, a London surgeon, at first adopted vac- 
 cination and corresponded with Jenner, but soon finding 
 that it did not protect from small-pox and that it also 
 jiroduced serious and sometimes fatal diseases, he became 
 one of its strongest opponents, and published many let- 
 ters and pamphlets against it up to the time of his death 
 in 1815. 
 
 ]\Ir. William Goldson, a surgeon at Portsea, published 
 a pamphlet in 1801, giving many cases in his own expe- 
 rience of small-pox following vaccination. What made 
 his testimony more important was that he was a believer 
 in vaccination, and sent accounts of some of his cases to 
 Jenner so early as 1802, but no notice was taken of 
 them.^ 
 
 Mr. Thomas Brown, a surgeon of Musselburgh, pub- 
 lished in 1809 a volume giving his experiences of the 
 results of vaccination. He had at first accepted and 
 practised it. He also applied the " variolous test," with 
 apparent success, and thereafter went on vaccinating in 
 full confidence that it was protective against small-pox, 
 till 1 808, when, during an epidemic, many of his patients 
 caught the disease from two to eight years after vaccina- 
 tion. He gives the details of forty-eight cases, all within 
 his own personal knowledge, and he says he knew of 
 many others. He then again tried the " variolous test," 
 
 ' The cases of failure of vaccination here referred to are given In 
 Mr. William White's "Story of a Great Delusion," wliere fuller ex- 
 tracts and references will be found. 
 
cHAP.xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 3S1 
 
 and found twelve eases in which it entirely failed, the 
 result being exactly as with those who were inoculated 
 without previous vaccination. These cases, with ex- 
 tracts from Brown's work, were brought before the 
 Royal Commission by Professor Crookshank. (See 4th 
 Report, Q. 11,852.) 
 
 Again, Mr. William Tebb brought before the Com- 
 mission a paper by Dr. Maclean, in the Medical Observer 
 of 1810, giving 535 cases of small-pox after vaccination, 
 of which 97 were fatal. He also gave 150 cases of 
 diseases from cow-pox, \vith the names of ten medical 
 men, including two Professors of Anatomy, who had 
 suffered in their own families from vaccination. The 
 following striking passage is quoted: "Doctrine. — Vac- 
 cination or Cow-pox inoculation is a perfect preventive 
 of small-pox during life. (Jenner, etc.) Refutation. — 
 535 cases of small-pox after cow-pox. Doctrine. — Cow- 
 pox renders small-pox milder. It is never fatal. Refu- 
 tation. — 97 deaths from small-pox after cow-pox and 
 from cow-pox diseases." 
 
 The cases here referred to, of failure of vaccination to 
 protect even for a few years, are probably only a small 
 fraction of those that occurred, since only in exceptional 
 cases would a doctor be able to keep his patients in view, 
 and only one doctor here and there would publish his 
 observations. The controversy was carried on with vm- 
 usual virulence ; hence perhaps the reason why the public 
 paid so little attention to it. But unfortunately both the 
 heads of the medical profession and the legislature had 
 committed themselves by recognizing the full claims of 
 Jenner at too early a date and in a manner that admitted 
 of no recall. In 1802, as already stated, the House of 
 
222 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. cbap.xvhi. 
 
 Commons, on tlie Eeport of its Committee, and the evi- 
 dence of the leading physicians and surgeons of London 
 — a large number of whom declared their belief that 
 cow-pox was a perfect security against small-pox — voted 
 Jenner £10,000. When therefore the flood of evidence 
 poured in, showing that it did not protect, it was already 
 too late to remedy the mischief that had been done, since 
 the profession would not so soon acknowledge its mis- 
 take, nor would the legislature admit having hastily 
 voted away the public money without adequate reason. 
 The vaccinators went on vaccinating, the House of Com- 
 mons gave Jenner £20,000 more in 1807, endowed vac- 
 cination with £3000 a year in 1808, and after providing 
 for free vaccination in 1840, made the operation com- 
 pulsory in 1853 by a fine, and ordered the Guardians to 
 prosecute in 1867. 
 
 Vaccination and the Medical Profession. 
 
 Before proceeding to adduce the conclusive evidence 
 that now exists of the failure of vaccination, a few pre- 
 liminary misconceptions must be dealt with. One of 
 these is that, as vaccination is a surgical operation to 
 guard against a special disease, medical men can alone 
 judge of its value. But the fact is the very reverse, for 
 several reasons. In the first place, they are interested 
 parties, not merely in a pecuniary sense, but as affecting 
 the prestige of the whole profession. In no other case 
 should we allow interested persons to decide an important 
 matter. Whether iron ships are safer than wooden ones 
 is not decided by ironmastei-s or by shipbuilders, biit by 
 the experience of sailors and by the statistics of loss. In 
 
CHAP. xvin. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 223 
 
 the administration of medicine or any other remedy for 
 a disease, the conditions are different. The doctor ap- 
 plies the remedy and watches the result, and if he has a 
 large practice he thereby obtains knowledge and experi- 
 ence which no other persons possess. But in the case of 
 vaccination, and especially in the case of public vaccina- 
 tors, the doctor does not see the result except by acci- 
 dent. Those who get small-pox go to the hospitals, or 
 are treated by other medical men, or may have left the 
 district; and the relation between the vaccination and 
 the attack of small-pox can only be discovered by the 
 accurate registration of all the cases and deaths, with the 
 facts as to vaccination or revaccination. When these 
 facts are accurately registered, to determine what they 
 teach is not the business of a doctor but of a statistician, 
 and there is much evidence to show that doctors are bad 
 statisticians, and have a special faculty for misstating 
 figures. This allegation is so grave and so fundamental 
 to the question at issue that a few facts must be given 
 in support of it. 
 
 The National Vaccine Establishment, supported by 
 Government grants, issued periodical Reports, which 
 were printed by order of the House of Commons; and 
 in successive years we find the following statements: 
 
 Tn 1812, and again in 1818, it is stated that " previous 
 to the discovery of vaccination the average number of 
 deaths by small-pox within the (London) Bills of Mor- 
 tality was 2000 annually; whereas in the last year only 
 751 persons have died of the disease, although the in- 
 crease of population within the last ten years has been 
 133,1.39." 
 
 The number 2000 is about the average small-pox 
 
294 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap.xviii. 
 
 deaths of the whole eighteenth century, but those of the 
 last two decades before the publication of Jenner's 
 " Inquiry," were 1751 and 1786, showing a decided fall. 
 This, however, may pass. But when we come to the 
 Report for 1826 we find the following: " But when we 
 reflect that before the introduction of vaccination the 
 average number of deaths from small-pox within the 
 Bills of Mortality was annually about 4000, no stronger 
 argument can reasonably be demanded in favor of the 
 value of this important discovery." 
 
 This monstrous figure was repeated in 1834, appar- 
 ently quite forgetting the correct figure for the whole 
 century given in 1818, and also the fact that the small- 
 pox deaths recorded in the London Bills of Mortality in 
 any year of the century never reached 4000. But worse 
 is to come; for in 1836 we have the following statement: 
 " The annual loss of life by small-pox in the Metropohs, 
 and within the Bills of Mortality only, before vaccina- 
 tion was established, exceeded 5000, whereas in the 
 course of last year only 300 died of the distemper." 
 And in the Report for 1838 this gross error is repeated; 
 while in the next year (1839) the conclusion is drawn 
 " that 4000 lives are saved every year in London since 
 vaccination so largely superseded variolation." ^ 
 
 The Board of the jSTational Vaccine Establishment 
 consisted of the President and four Censors of the Royal 
 College of Physicians, and the Master and two senior 
 
 ' These extracts from the Reports are giFen bj' Mr. White in his 
 " Story of a Great Delusion." Tlie actual deaths from smallpox dur- 
 ing the last century are given in the Second Report of the Royal 
 Commission, p. 290. The oxiracts have been verified at the British 
 Museum by my friend Dr. Scott Tebb, and are verbally accurate, 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 325 
 
 Wardens of the College of Surgeons. AVe cannot pos- 
 sibly suppose that they knew or believed that they were 
 publishing untruths and grossly deceiving the public. 
 We must, therefore, fall back upon the supposition that 
 they were careless to such an extent as not to find out 
 that they were authorizing successive statements of the 
 same quantity, as inconsistent with each other as 2000 
 and 5000. 
 
 The next example is given by Dr. Lettsom, who, in 
 his evidence before the Parliamentary Committee in 
 1802, calculated the small-pox deaths of Great Britain 
 and Ireland before vaccination at 36,000 annually; by 
 taking 3000 as the annual mortality in London and mul- 
 tiplying by twelve, because the population was estimated 
 to be twelve times as large. He first takes a number 
 which is much too high, and then assumes that the mor- 
 tality in the town, village, and country populations was 
 the same as in overcrowded, filthy London! Small-pox 
 was always present in London, while Sir Gilbert Blane 
 tells us that in many parts of the country it was quite un- 
 known for periods of twenty, thirty, or forty years. In 
 1782 Mr. Connah, a surgeon at Seaford, in Sussex, only 
 knew of one small-pox death in eleven years among a 
 population of 700. Cross, the historian of the ISTorwich 
 epidemic in 1819, states that previous to 1805 small-pox 
 was little known in this city of 40,000 inhabitants, and 
 was for a time almost extinct; and yet this gross error, 
 of computing the small-pox mortality of the whole coun- 
 try from that of London (and computing it from wrong 
 data) was not only accepted at the time, but has been 
 repeated again and again down to the present day as an 
 ascertained fact ! 
 
336 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xnn. 
 
 In a speech in Parliament in defence of vaccination, 
 Sir Lyon Playfair gave 4000 per million as the average 
 London death-rate by small-pox before vaccination — a 
 number nearly double that of the last twenty years of the 
 century, which alone affords a fair comparison. But 
 far more amazing is the statement by the late Dr. "VV. B. 
 Carpenter, in a letter to the Spectator of April, 1881, 
 that " a hundred years ago the small-pox mortality of 
 London alone, with its then population of under a mil- 
 lion, was often greater in a six months' epidemic than 
 that of the twenty millions of England and Wales now 
 is in any whole year." The facts, Avell known to eveiy 
 enquirer, are — that the very highest small-pox mor- 
 tality in the last century in a year was 3992 in 1772, 
 while in 1871 it was 7912 in London, or more than 
 double ; and in the same year, in England and Wales, it 
 was 23^000. This amazing and almost incredible mis- 
 statement was pointed out and acknowledged privately, 
 but never withdrawn jjublicly ! 
 
 The late IMr. Ernest Hart, a medical man, editor of the 
 British Medical Journal, and a great authority on sani- 
 tation, in his work entitled " The Truth about Vaccina- 
 tion," surpassed even Dr. Carpenter in the monstrosity 
 of his errors. At page 35 of the first edition (1880), 
 he stated that in the forty years 1728-57 and 1771-80, 
 the average annual small-pox mortality of London was 
 about 18,000 per million hving. The actual average 
 mortality, from the tables given in the Second Eeport of 
 the Royal Commission, page 290, was a little over 2000, 
 the worst periods having been chosen; and taking the 
 lowest estimates of the population at the time, the mor- 
 tality per million Avould have been under 3000. This 
 
CHAP, xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 337 
 
 great authority, therefore, has multiplied the real num- 
 ber by six ! In a later edition this statement is omitted ; 
 but in the first edition it was no mere misprint, for it was 
 triumphantly dwelt upon over a whole page and com- 
 pared with modem rates of mortality. 
 
 Yet one more official misstatement. About the year 
 1884 the National Health Society, with the approval of 
 the Local Government Board, issued a tract entitled 
 Facts concerning Vaccination for Heads of Families, in 
 which appeared the statement, " Before the introduction 
 of vaccination, small-pox killed 40,000 persons yearly 
 in this country." We have already shown that Dr. 
 Lettsom's figure, 36,000 was utterly imfounded, and 
 probably three or four times greater than the truth. 
 Here we have a semi-official and widely-distributed 
 statement even more remote from the truth. In later 
 issues of the same tract this particular statement is with- 
 drawn, and a difl^erent but equally erroneous one substi- 
 tuted. Thus: " Before its discovery [vaccination] the 
 mortality from small-pox in London was forty times 
 greater than it is now." This is an altogether vague and 
 misleading statement. If it means that in so7ne years of 
 the last century it was forty times greater than in some 
 years of this century, it is misleading, because even 
 within the last thirty years some years have a mortality 
 not only forty but eighty and even 200 times as great as 
 others. (In 1875 there were ten deaths per million, 
 while in 1871 there were 2420 deaths per million.) If 
 it means on an average of say twenty years, it is false. 
 For the twenty years 1869-98 the mortality was about 
 800 per million, while for the last twenty years before 
 the discovery of vaccination it was about 2000 per mil- 
 
238 
 
 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 CHAP. XTin. 
 
 lion, or less than seven times as much instead of forty 
 times ! 
 
 This same tract is full of other equally gross misstate- 
 ments. It tells us, in large, black type, " With due 
 care in the performance of the operation, no risk of any 
 injurious effects from it need be feared." The Eegis- 
 trar-General himself shows us that this is false, in his 
 Report for 1895, Table 17, p. lii.: 
 
 COWPOX AUD OTHER EFFECTS OF VACCINATION. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Deaths. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Deaths. 
 
 1881 
 
 58 
 
 1889 
 
 . 58 
 
 1882 
 
 65 
 
 1890 
 
 . 43 
 
 1883 
 
 55 
 
 1891 
 
 4a 
 
 1884 
 
 53 
 
 1893 
 
 . 58 
 
 1885 
 
 53 
 
 1893 
 
 59 
 
 1886 
 
 45 
 
 1894 
 
 . 50 
 
 1887 
 
 45 
 
 1895 
 
 56 
 
 1888 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 An average of 52 children officially murdered every 
 year, and officially acknowledged, is tenued " alleged in- 
 jury," which need not be feared! And these cruel 
 falsehoods are spread broadcast over the country, and the 
 tract bears upon its title-]' ige — " Re^^dsed by the Local 
 Government Board, and issued with their sanction." 
 
 As the tract bears no date,I cannot tell whether it is 
 still issued ; but it was in circulation up to the time when 
 the Commission was sitting, and it is simply disgrace- 
 ful that a Government Department should ever have 
 given its official sanction to such a tissue of misrepre- 
 sentations and palpable false statements. For these 785 
 deaths in fifteen years, and 390 in the preceding twenty- 
 two years (classed as from erysipelas after vaccination), 
 no one has been punished, and no compensation or even 
 official apology has been given to the thousand sorrow- 
 
CHAP, xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 229 
 
 ing families. And we may be sure that these acknowl- 
 edged deaths are only a small portion of what have really 
 occurred, since the numbers have increased considerably 
 in the later period, during which more attention has been 
 given to such deaths and more inquests held. It is cer- 
 tain that for every such death acknowledged by the 
 medical man concerned, many are concealed under the 
 easy method of stating some of the later symptoms as the 
 cause of death. Thus, Mr. Henry May, Medical Officer 
 of Health, candidly states as follows: "In certificates 
 given by us voluntarily, and to Avhich the public have 
 access, it is scarcely to be expected that a medical man 
 will give opinions which may tell against or reflect upon 
 himself in any way. In such cases he will most likely 
 tell the truth, but not the whole truth, and assign some 
 prominent symptom of the disease as the cause of death. 
 As instances of cases which may tell against the medical 
 man himself, I will mention erysipelas from vaccination, 
 and puerperal fever. A death from the first cause 
 occurred not long ago in my practice; and although I 
 had not vaccinated the child, yet, in my desire to pre- 
 serve vaccination from reproach, I omitted all mention 
 of it from my certificate of death." (See Birmingham 
 Medical Review, vol. iii. pp. 34, 35.) That such sup- 
 pressio veri is no new thing, but has been going on dur- 
 ing the whole period of vaccination, is rendered probable 
 by a statement in the Medical Observer of 1810, by Dr. 
 Maclean. He says: "Very few deaths from cow-pox 
 appear in the Bills of Mortality, owing to the means 
 which have been used to suppress a knowledge of them. 
 Neither were deaths, diseases, and failures transmitted 
 in great abundance from the country, not because they 
 
330 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xtiii. 
 
 did not happen, but because some practitioners were 
 interested in not seeing them, and others who did see 
 them were afraid of announcing what they knew." 
 
 As an example of the number of cases occurring all 
 over the country, Mr. Charles Fox, a medical man re- 
 siding at Cardiff, has published fifty-six cases of illness 
 following vaccination, of which seventeen resulted in 
 death (E. W. Allen, 1890). In only two of these, where 
 he himself gave the certificate, was vaccination men- 
 tioned. All of these cases were examined by himself 
 personally. Among those who survived, several were 
 permanently injured in health, and some were crippled 
 for life; while in most of such cases the inflammation and 
 eruptions are so painful, and the sufferings of the chil- 
 dren so great and so prolonged, that the mother endures 
 continuous mental torture, lasting for weeks, months, or 
 even years. And if one medical man can record such a 
 mass of injury and disease in which vaccination Avas the 
 palpable starting-point and certainly a contributory 
 cause, what must be the total mass of unrecorded suffer- 
 ing throughout the whole country? Considering this 
 and other evidence, together with the admitted and very 
 natural concealment by the doctors concerned, " to save 
 vaccination from reproach," the estimate of Mr. Alfred 
 ililnes, a statistician who has paid special attention to 
 the subject, that the officially admitted deaths must be 
 at least multiplied by twelve to obtain the real deaths 
 from vaccination, we shall arrive at the terrible number 
 of over GOO children and adults killed annually by this 
 compulsory operation; while, judging from the propor- 
 tion of permanent injury, — twenty-eight in Mr. Fox's 
 fifty-six cases, with seventeen deaths, — about 1000 per- 
 
CHAP. svm. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 331 
 
 sons annually must suffer from it throughout their lives ! 
 As confirmatory of even this large amount, the testimony 
 of Mr. Da^'idson, Medical Officer of Health for Congle- 
 ton, and formerly a Public Vaccinator, is important. He 
 began an inquiry into the alleged injurious effects of 
 vaccination, without believing that they were serious. 
 The outcome of his investigation was startling to him. 
 In his Anmial Report for 1893, he says: " In the inves- 
 tigation of a single vaccination period, the fact was re- 
 vealed that in quite fifty per cent, of all vaccinated in 
 that period (about seventy), the results were abnormal, 
 and, in a large number of these very grave injuries had 
 been inflicted. That the results of the practice are the 
 same elsewhere as in Congleton I have no reason to 
 doubt, for judging from what I have seen of his method 
 of vaccinating, our Public Vaccinator is as careful as 
 it seems possible for a Public Vaccinator to be." 
 
 This evidence of Mr. Davidson is especially impor- 
 tant, because it reveals the fact that, as I stated some 
 pages back, neither Public Vaccinators nor ordinary 
 medical men usually know anything of the injurious 
 effects of vaccination, except in such individual cases as 
 may occur in their practice, while all around them there 
 may be a mass of evil results which, when systematically 
 investigated, proves as unexpected as it is startling in 
 its amount. 
 
 This brief exposition of medical and official misstate- 
 ments of facts and figures, always in favor of vaccina- 
 tion, might have been largely increased; but it is already 
 sufficient to demonstrate the position I take, which is 
 that in this matter of Official and Compulsory Vaccina- 
 tion, both doctors and Government officials, however 
 
833 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 highly placed, however eminent, however honorable, are 
 yet utterly untrustworthy. Beginning in the early 
 years of the century, and contini;ing to our own times, 
 we find the most gross and palpable blunders in figures — 
 but always on the side of vaccination — and, on the testi- 
 mony of medical men themselves, a more or less con- 
 tinuous perversion of the ofhcial records of vaccinal in- 
 jury " in order to save vaccination from reproach." Let 
 this always be remembered in any discussion of the ques- 
 tion. The facts and figures of the medical profession, 
 and of Government officials, in regard to the question of 
 vaccination, must never he accepted without verification. 
 And when we consider tliat these misstatements, and 
 concealments, and denials of injury, have been going on 
 throughout the whole of the century; that penal legis- 
 lation has been founded on them ; that homes of the poor 
 haA'e been broken up; that thousands have been harried 
 by police and magistrates, have been imprisoned and 
 treated in every way as felons; and that, at the rate now 
 officially arlmitted, a thousand children have been cer- 
 tainly killed by vaccination during the last tAventy years, 
 and an unknown but probably much larger number in- 
 jured for life, we are driven to the conclusion that those 
 responsible for these reckless misstatements and their 
 terrible results have, thoughtlessly and ignorantly but 
 none the less certainly, been guilty of a crime against 
 liberty, against health, against himianity, which will, 
 before many years have passed, be uniA'ersally held to 
 be one of the foulest blots on the civilization of the nine- 
 teenth century. '^ 
 
 ' As an example of the dreadful results of vaccination, even where 
 special care was taken, the following case from the Sixth Report of 
 
CHAP, sviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 233 
 
 II. 
 
 MUCH OF THE EVIDENCE ADDUCED FOR VACCINATION IS 
 WORTHLESS. 
 
 We will now proceed to discuss the alleged value of 
 ^'accination, by means of the best and widest statistical' 
 
 tlie Royal Commission (p. 128) is woitliy of earnest attention. It is 
 the evidence of Dr. Tliomas Skinner of Liverpool: 
 
 Q. 20,766. Will you give the Coniiiiissiou the particulars of the 
 case?— A young lady, fifteen years of age, living at Grove Park, 
 Liverpool, was revaccinatcd by rae at her father's request, during an 
 outbreak of smallpo.'c in Liverpool in 1865, as I had revaccinated all 
 the girls in the Orphan Girls' Asylum in Myrtle Street, Liverpool 
 (over two hundred girls, I believe), and as the young lady's father 
 was chaplain to the asylum, he selected, and I approved of the selec- 
 tion, of a young girl, the picture of health, and whose vaccine vesicle 
 was matured, and as perfect in appearance as it is possible to con- 
 ceive. On the eighth day I took off the lymph in a capillary glass 
 tube, almost filling the tube with clear, transparent lymph. Next 
 day, 7th March, 1865, I revaccinated the young lady from this same 
 tube, and from the same tube and at the same time I revaccinated 
 her mother and the cook. Before opening the tube I remember 
 holding it up to the light and requesting the mother to observe how 
 perfectly clear and homogeneous, like water, the lymph was; neither 
 pus nor blood corpuscles were visible to the naked eye. All three 
 operations were successful, and on the eighth day all three vesicles 
 were matured " like a pearl upon a rose petal," as Jeuner described 
 a perfect specimen. On that day, the eighth day after the operation, 
 I visited my patient, and to all appearance she was in the soundest 
 health and spirits, with her usual bright eyes and ruddy cheeks. 
 Although I was much tempted to take the lymph from so healthy a 
 vesicle and subject, I did not do so, as I have frequently seen ery- 
 sipelas and other bad consequences follow the opening of a matured 
 vesicle. As I did not open the vesicle, that operation could not be 
 the cause of what followed. Between the tenth and the eleventh day 
 after the revaccination — that is, about three days after the vesicle had 
 matured and begun to scab over— I was called in haste to my patient 
 the young lady, whom I found in one of the most severe rigors I ever 
 witnessed, such as generally precedes or ushers in surgical, puerperal, 
 
234 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. ch.,p. xvin. 
 
 evidence at our command; and in doing so we shall be 
 able to show that the medical experts, who have been 
 trusted by the Government and by the general public, 
 are no less deficient in their power of drawing accurate 
 conclusions from the official statistics of vaccination and 
 small-pox mortality than they have been shown to be in 
 their capacity for recording facts and quoting figures 
 with precision and correctness. 
 
 and other forms of fever. This would be on the 18th March, 1865. 
 Eight days from the time of this rigor my patient Wiis dead, and she 
 died of tlie most frightful form of blood poisoning that I ever wit- 
 nessed, and I have been forty-five years in the active practice of my 
 profession. After the rigor, a low form of acute peritonitis set in, 
 with incessant vomiting and pain, which defied all means to allay. 
 At last, stercoraceous vomiting, and cold, clammy, deadly sweats of 
 a sickly odor set in, with pulselessness, collapse, and death, which 
 closed the terrible scene on the morning of the 26th March, 1865. 
 Within twenty minutes of death rapid decomposition set in, and 
 within two hours so great was tlie bloated and discolored condition 
 of the whole body, more especially of the head and face, that there 
 was not a feature of this once lovely girl recognizable. Dr. John 
 Cameron of 4 Rodney Street, Liverpool, physician to the Royal 
 Southern Hospital at Liverpool, met me daily in consultation while 
 life lasted. I have a copy of the certificate of death here. 
 
 Q. 30,767. To what do you attribute the death there?— I can 
 attribute the death there to nothing but vaccination. 
 
 In the same Report, fifteen medical men give evidence as to dis- 
 ease, permanent injury, or death caused by vaccination. Two give 
 evidence of syphilis and one of leprosy as clearly due to vaccination. 
 And, as an instance of how the law is applied in the case of the poor, 
 we have the story told by Mrs. Amelia AVJiiting (Q<^. 31,434^31,464). 
 To put it in brief, it amounts to this: Mrs. Whiting lost a child, 
 after terrible suffering, from inflammation supervening upon vaccina- 
 tion. The doctor's bill for the illness was £1 12s. Bd.; and a woman 
 who came in to help was paid 6s. After this first child's death, pro- 
 ceedings were taken for the non-vaccination of another child; and 
 though the case was explained in court, a fine of one shilling was 
 inflicted. And through it all, the husband's earnings as a laborer 
 were lis. a week. 
 
cBii.. XVIII. VACCINATION A BEI.USION. 235 
 
 In the elaborate paper by Sir John Simon, on the 
 Plistoiy and Practice of Vaccination, presented to Par- 
 liament in 1857 and reprinted in the First Report of the 
 Royal Commission, he tells us that the earlier evidence 
 of the vahie of vaccination was founded on individual 
 cases, but that now " from individual cases the appeal is 
 to masses of national experience." And the marginal 
 reference is, " Evidence on the protectiveness of vaccina- 
 tion must now be statistical." If this was true in 1857, 
 how much more must it be so now, when we have forty 
 years more of " national experience " to go upon. Dr. 
 Guy, M. D., F. R. S., enforces this view in his paper 
 published by the Royal Statistical Society in 1882. He 
 says: ''Is vaccination a preventive of small-pox? To 
 this question there is, there can be, no answer except 
 such as is couched in the language of figures." But the 
 language of figures, otherwise the science of statistics, is 
 not one which he who runs may read. It is full of pit- 
 falls for the unwary, and requires either special apti- 
 tude or special training to avoid these pitfalls and 
 deduce from the mass of figures at our command what 
 they really teach. 
 
 A commission or committee of enquiry into this mo- 
 mentous question should have consisted wholly, or 
 almost wholly, of statisticians, who would hear medical 
 as well as official and independent evidence, would have 
 all existing ofiicial statistics at their comiuand, and would 
 be able to tell us, with some show of authority, exactly 
 what the figures proved, and what they only rendered 
 probable on one side and on the other. But instead of 
 such a body of experts, the Royal Commission, which for 
 more than six years was occupied in hearing evidence 
 
236 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviit. 
 
 and cross-examining witnesses, consisted wholly of medi- 
 cal men, lawyers, politicians, and country gentlemen, 
 none of whom were trained statisticians, while the ma- 
 jority came to the enquiry more or less prejudiced in 
 favor of vaccination. The report of such a body can 
 have but little value, and I hope to satisfy my readers 
 that it (the Majority Report) is not in accordance with 
 the facts; that the report,ers have lost themselves in the 
 mazes of unimportant details; and that they have fallen 
 into some of the pitfalls which encumber the path of 
 those who, without adequate knowledge or training, at- 
 tempt to deal Avith great masses of figures. 
 
 But before proceeding to discuss the statistical evi- 
 dence set forth in the reports of the Commission, I have 
 again the disagreeable task of showing that a very large 
 portion of it, on which the Commissioners mainly rely 
 to justify their conclusions, is altogether untrustworthy, 
 and must therefore be rejected whenever it is opposed to 
 the results of the great body of more accurate statistical 
 eA'idence. T allude of course to the question of the com- 
 parative small-pox mortality of the Vaccinated and the 
 LTnvaccinated. The first point to be noticed is that 
 existing official evidence of the greatest value has never 
 been made use of for the purposes of registration, and is 
 not now available. For the last sixteen years the Eegis- 
 trar-Ceneral gives the deaths from small-pox under three 
 headings. Thus, in the year 1881 he gives for London 
 (Annual Summary, p. xxiv.): 
 
 Smallpox. 
 
 Vaccinated, 
 
 524 deaths, 
 
 Not vaccinated, 
 
 963 " 
 
 No statement, 
 
 885 " 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 237 
 
 And in the year 1893, for England and Wales, the 
 figures are (Annual Report, p. xi.): 
 
 Smallpox. 
 
 Vaccinated, 
 
 150 deaths. 
 
 " 
 
 Unvaccinated, . 
 
 263 ■• 
 
 (( 
 
 No statement, 
 
 1054 " 
 
 Now such figures as these, even if those under the first 
 two headings were correct, are a perfect farce, and are 
 totally useless for any statistical purpose. Yet every 
 vaccination is officially recorded — since 1873 private as 
 well as public vaccinations — and it would not have been 
 difficult to trace almost every small-pox patient to his 
 place of birth, and to get the official record of his vac- 
 cination if it exists. As the medical advisers of the 
 Government have not done this, and give us instead par- 
 tial and local statistics, usually imder no official sanction 
 and often demonstrably incorrect, every rule of evidence 
 and every dictate of common sense entitle us to reject 
 the fragmentary and unverified statements which they 
 put before us. Of the frequent untrustworthiness of 
 such statements it is necessary to give a few examples. 
 
 In " ^STotes on the Small-pox Epidemic at Birken- 
 head," 1877 (p. 9), Dr. F. Vacher says: " Those entered 
 as not vaccinated were admittedly unvaccinated, or mth- 
 out the faintest mark. The mere assertions of patients 
 or their friends that they were vaccinated counted for 
 nothing." Another medical official justifies this method 
 of making statistics, as follows: " I have always classed 
 those as ' unvaccinated,' when no scar, presumably aris- 
 ing from vaccination, could be discovered. Individuals 
 are constantly seen who state that they have been vacci- 
 nated, but upon whom no cicatrices can be traced. In a 
 
238 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY, cuap. xvia. 
 
 prognostic and a statistic point of view, it is be.tter, and, 
 I think, necessary, to class them as unvaccinated " (Dr. 
 Gayton's Eeport for the Homerton Hospital for 
 1871-72--Y3). 
 
 Tlie result of this method, which is certainly very 
 general though not universal, is such a falsification of 
 the real facts as to render them worthless for statistical 
 purposes. It is stated by so high an authority as Sir 
 James Paget, in his lectures on Surgical Pathology, that 
 " cicatrices may in time wear out " ; while the Vaccina- 
 tion Committee of the Epidemiological Society, in its 
 Report for 1885-86, admitted that " not every cicatrice 
 will permanently exist." Even more important is the 
 fact that in confluent small-pox the cicatrices are hid- 
 den, and large numbers of admissions to the hospitals are 
 in the later stages of the disease. Dr. Russell, in his 
 Glasgow Report (18'71-'72, p. 25), observes, " Sometimes 
 persons were said to be vaccinated, but no marks could 
 be seen, very frequently because of the abundance of the 
 eruption. In some of those cases which recovered, an 
 inspection before dismission discovered vaccine marks, 
 sometimes very good." 
 
 In many cases private enquiry has detected errors of 
 this kind. In the Second Report of the Commission, 
 pp. 219-20, a witness declared that out of six persons 
 who died of small-pox and were reported by the medical 
 officer of the Union to have been unvaccinated, five were 
 found to have been vaccinated: one being a child who 
 had been vaccinated by the very person who made the 
 report, and another a man who had been twice revacci- 
 natod in the militia (Q. 6730-42). One other case may 
 be given. In October, 1883, three unvaccinated chil- 
 
OHAP.xvni. VACCINATION A DELUSION. S39 
 
 dren were stated in the Registrar-General's weekly re- 
 turn of deaths in London to have died of small-pox, 
 " being one, four, and nine years of age, and all from 3 
 Medland Street, Stepney." On enquiry at the address 
 given (apparently by oversight in this one case) the 
 mother stated that the three children were hers, and that 
 " all had been beautifully vaccinated." This case was 
 investigated by Mr. J. Graham Spencer, of 33 Rigault 
 Road, Fulham Park Gardens, and the facts were pub- 
 lished in the local papers and also in " The Vaccination 
 Inquirer " of December, 1883. 
 
 Several other cases were detected at Sheffield, and 
 were adduced by Mr. A. Wheeler in his evidence before 
 the Commission (6th Report, p. 70); and many others 
 are to be found throughout the Anti-Vaccination peri- 
 odicals. But the difficulty of tracing such misstate- 
 ments is very great, as the authorities almost always re- 
 fuse to give information as to the cases referred to when 
 particular deaths from small-pox are recorded as " un- 
 vaccinated." Why this effort at secrecy in such a mat- 
 ter if there is nothing to hide ? Surely it is to the public 
 interest that official statistics should be made as correct 
 as possible ; and private persons who go to much trouble 
 and expense in order to correct errors should be wel- 
 comed as public benefactors and assisted in every way, 
 not treated as impertinent intruders on official privacy, 
 as is too frequently the case. 
 
 The result of this prejudiced and unscientific method 
 of registering small-pox mortality is the belief of the 
 majority of the medical writers on the subject that there 
 is an enormous difference between the mortality of the 
 vaccinated and the unvaccinated, and that the difference 
 
340 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvm. 
 
 is due to the fact of vaccination or the absence of it. 
 The following are a few of the figures as to this point 
 given in the Reports of the Royal Commission : 
 
 Death Hate Death Rate 
 Authority. op of 
 
 Vaccinated. trNVACciNATED. 
 Dr. Gayton, in 3d Report (Table B, p. 345), 7.45 43 
 
 Dr. Barry (Table F, p. 349), ... 8.1 33.7 
 
 Sir John Simon (1st Report, p 74) . to 12^ 14^ to 60 
 Mr. Sweeting, M.R.C.S. (3d Report, p. 119), 8.93 46.08 
 
 Now an immense body of statistics of the last century 
 compiled by disinterested persons M'ho had no interest to 
 serve by making the severity of small-pox large or small, 
 gives an average of from 14 to 18 per cent.' as the pro- 
 portion of small-pox deaths to cases; and we naturally 
 ask, How is it that, with so much better sanitary condi- 
 tions and greatly improved treatment, nearly half the 
 unvaccinated patients die, while in the last century less 
 than one-fifth died ? Many of the supporters of vaccina- 
 tion, such as Dr. Gayton (2d Report, p. 1856), have no 
 explanation to oifer. Others, such as Dr. Whitelegge 
 (6th Report, p. 533), believe that small-pox becomes 
 more virulent periodically, and that one of its maxima 
 of virulence caused the great epidemic of 1870-72, 
 which, after more than half a century of vaccination, 
 equalled some of the worst epidemics of the pre-vaccina- 
 tion period. 
 
 It is, however, a most suggestive fact that, consider- 
 ing small-pox mortality per se, without reference to vac- 
 cination — the records of which are, as have been shown, 
 utterly untrustworthy — we find the case-mortality to 
 
 ' See Table J, p. 301, 3d Report, and the Minority Report of the 
 Roy. Comm., pp. 176-77. 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 341 
 
 agree closely with that of the last century. Thus, the 
 figures given in the Reports of the Hampstcad, Homer- 
 ton, and Deptford small-pox hospitals, at periods between 
 1876 and 1879, were, 19, 18.8, and 17 per cent, re- 
 spectively (3d Report, p. 205). If we admit that only 
 the worst cases went to the hospitals, but also allow some- 
 thing for better treatment now, the result is quite ex- 
 plicable ; whereas the other result, of a greatly increased 
 fatality in the unvaccinated so exactly balanced by an 
 alleged greatly diminished fatality in the vaccinated is 
 not explicable, especially when we remember that this 
 diminished fatality applies to all ages, and it is now 
 almost universally admitted that the alleged protective 
 influence of vaccination dies out in ten or twelve years. 
 These various opinions are really self -destructive. If 
 epidemic small-pox is now much more virulent than in 
 the last century as shown by the greater mortality of the 
 unvaccinated now than then, the greatly diminished or 
 almost vanishing effect of primary vaccination in adults 
 cannot possibly have reduced their fatality to one-fifth 
 or one-sixth of that of the other class. 
 
 Again, it is admitted by many pro-vaccinist authori- 
 ties that the unvaccinated, as a rule, belong to the jDOorer 
 classes, while they also include most of the criminal 
 classes, tramps, and generally the nomad population. 
 They also include all those children whose vaccination 
 has been defeiTcd on account of weakness or of their 
 suffering from other diseases, as well as all those under 
 vaccination age. The unvaccinated as a class are there- 
 fore especially liable to zymotic disease of any kind, 
 small-pox included; and when, in addition to these causes 
 of a higher death-rate from small-pox, we take account 
 
242 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chat, xviii. 
 
 of the proved untrustworthiness of the statistics, wholly 
 furnished by men who are prejudiced in favor of vacci- 
 nation (as instanced by the declaration, of Dr. Gayton, 
 that when the eruption is so severe as on the third day to 
 hide the vaccination marks, it affords prima facie evi- 
 dence of non-vaccination, 2d Report, Q. 1790), we are 
 fully justiiied in rejecting all arguments in favor of vac- 
 cination supported by such fallacious evidence. And 
 this is the more rational covirse to be adopted by all un- 
 prejudiced enquirers, because, as I shall now proceed to 
 shoM^, there is an abundance of facts of a more accurate 
 and more satisfactory nature by which to test the 
 question.^ 
 
 One more point may be referred to before quitting 
 this part of the subject, which is that the more recent 
 official hospital-statistics themselves afford a demonstra- 
 tion of the non-protective influence of vaccination, and 
 thus serve as a complete refutation of the conclusions 
 drawn from the statistics we have just been dealing with. 
 Dr. ifunk stated before the Hospital Commission that 
 the percentage of vaccinated patients in the London 
 small-pox hospital had increased from 40 per cent, in 
 1838 to 94^V per cent, in 1879 (SdEeport of Royal Com- 
 mission, Q. 9090. This evidence was given in 1882; 
 but Mr. Wheeler stated that, according to the Repoi-ts 
 of the Highgate hospital, the vaccinated patients had 
 
 ' The same view is taken even by some advocates of vaccination in 
 Germany. In an account of the German " Commission for the Con- 
 sideration of the Vaccination Question " in the Britinh Medical Jour- 
 nal, August 29, 1865 (p. 408), we find it stated: " In the view of Dr. 
 Koch, no otlier statistical material than the mortality from small-pox 
 can be relied upon; questions as to the vaccinated or un vaccinated 
 condition of the patient leaving too much room for error," 
 
CHAP, xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 24;j 
 
 long been over 90 per cent, of the whole, and are now 
 often even 94 or 95 per cent. The hospitals of the 
 Metropohtan Asylnms Board, which take in mostly 
 pauper patients, give a lower percentage — the Homer- 
 ton hospital 85 per cent., the Deptford hospital 87 per 
 cent., and the Hampstead hospital 75 per cent. — in the 
 two latter cases adding the " doubtful " class to the 
 vaccinated, as the facts already given prove that we have 
 a right to do and still probably give too high a propor- 
 tion of unvaccinated. As the propoi*tion of the London 
 population that is vaccinated cannot be over 90 per cent, 
 (see Minority Report, pp. 173-174), and is probably 
 much lower, and considering the kind of patients the un- 
 vaccinated include (see back, p. 241), there remains abso- 
 lutely nothing for the effects of vaccination. We have 
 already seen that the total case-mortality of these hospi- 
 tals agrees closely with that of the last century; the two 
 classes of facts, taken together, thus render it almost cer- 
 tain that vaccination has never saved a single human life. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE GENERAL STATISTICS OF SJIALL-POX MORTALITY IN 
 RELATION TO VACCINATION. 
 
 Having thus cleared away the mass of doubtful or 
 erroneous statistics depending on comparisons of the vac- 
 cinated and the unvaccinated in limited areas or selected 
 groups of patients, we turn to the only really important 
 evidence, those " masses of national experience " which 
 Sir John Simon, the great official advocate of vaccina- 
 tion, tells us we must now ajipeal to for an authoritative 
 decision on the question of the value of vaccination; to 
 
244 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xvm, 
 
 which may be added certain classes of official evidence 
 serving as test cases or " control experiments " on a large 
 scale. Almost the whole of the evidence will be derived 
 from the Reports of the recent Royal Commission. 
 
 In determining what statistics really mean the graphic 
 is the only scientific method, since, except in a few very 
 simple cases, long tables of figures are confusing; and if 
 divided np and averages taken, as is often done, they can 
 be manipulated so as to conceal their real teaching. 
 Diagrams, on the other hand, enable us to see the whole 
 bearing of the variations that occur, while for compari- 
 son of one set of figures with another their superiority 
 is overwhelming. This is especially the case with the 
 statistics of epidemics and of general mortality, because 
 the ■v'ariations are so irregular and often so large as to 
 render tables of figures -^-ery puzzling, while any just 
 comparison of several tables with each other becomes 
 impossible. I shall therefore put all the statistics I have 
 to lay before my readers in the form of diagrams, which, 
 I believe, with a little explanation, will enable anyone to 
 grasp the main points of the argument. (See end of 
 volume.) 
 
 London Mortality and Small-pox. 
 
 The first and largest of the diagrams illustrating this 
 question is that exhibiting the mortality of London from 
 the year 1760 down to the present day (see end of vol- 
 ume). It is divided into two portions, that from 1760 
 to 1834 being derived from the old " Bills of Mortality," 
 that from 1838 to 1896 from the Reports of the Regis- 
 trar-General. 
 
 The " Bills of Mortality " arc the only material avail- 
 
OHAP.xTin. VACCIKATION A DELUSION. 245 
 
 able for the first period, and tliey are far inferior in 
 accuracy to the modern registration, but they are prob- 
 ably of a fairly uniform character throughout, and may 
 therefore be as useful for purposes of comparison as if 
 they were more minutely accurate. It is admitted that 
 they did not include the whole of the deaths, and the 
 death-rates calculated from the estimated population 
 will therefore be too low as compared with those of the 
 Registrar-General, but the course of each death-rate — 
 its various risings or fallings — will probably be nearly 
 true.^ The yeai-s are given along the bottom of the 
 diagram, and the deaths per million living are indicated 
 at the two ends and in the centre ; the last four years of 
 the Bills of Mortality being omitted because they are 
 considered to be especially inaccurate. The upper line 
 gives the total death-rate from all causes, the middle line 
 the death-rate from the chief zymotic diseases — measles, 
 scarlet-fever, diphtheria, whooping-cough, and fevers 
 generally, excluding small-pox, and the lower line small- 
 pox only. The same diseases, as nearly as they can be 
 identified in the Bills of Mortality, according to Dr. 
 
 ' It is always stated that only tbe deaths of those persons belong- 
 ing to the Church of England, or who were buried in the church- 
 yards, are recorded in the " Bills." This seems very improbable, 
 because the " searchers" must have visited the house and recorded 
 the death before the burial; and as they were of course paid a fee for 
 each death certified by them, they would not inquire very closely as 
 to the religious opinions of the family, or where the deceased was to 
 be buried. A friend of mine who lived in London before the epoch 
 of registration Informs me that he remembers the " searchers' " visit 
 on the occasion of the death of his grandmother. They were two 
 women dressed in black; the family were strict dissenters, and the 
 burial was at the Bunhill Fields cemetery for Nonconformists. This 
 case proves that in all probability the "Bills " did include the deaths 
 of many, perhaps most. Nonconformists. 
 
346 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. cHAr xviii. 
 
 Creighton, are given in the earlier portion of the dia- 
 gi-am from the tigiires given in his great work, " A His- 
 tory of J<]i)i(leniics in Britain." As regards the line of 
 small-pox mortality, tlie diagram is the same as that 
 presented to the Itoyal Commission (3d Report, Dia- 
 gram J.), but it is carried back to an earlier date. 
 
 Let us now examine the lowest line, showing the small- 
 pox death-rate. First taking the period from 1760 to 
 1800, we see, amid great fluctuations and some excep- 
 tional epidemics, a well-marked steady decline which, 
 though oljscured by its great irregiilarity, amounts to a 
 difference of 1000 per million living. This decline con- 
 tinues, perhaps somewhat more rapidly, to 1820. From 
 that date to 1834 the decline is much less, and is hardly 
 perceptible. The period of Registration opens with the 
 great epidemic of 1838, and thenceforward to 1885 
 the decline is very slow indeed; while, if we average the 
 great epidemic of 1871 with the preceding ten years, we 
 shall not be able to discover any decline at all. From 
 1886, however, there is a rather siidden decline to a 
 very low death-rate, which has continued to the present 
 time. Now it is alleged by advocates of vaccination, 
 and by the Commissioners in their Report, that the de- 
 cline from 1800 onward is due to vaccination, either 
 wholly or in great part, and that " the marked decline of 
 small-pox in the first quarter of the present century 
 affords substantial e'^ddence in favor of the protective in- 
 fluence of vaccination." ^ This conclusion is not only 
 entirely unwarranted by the evidence on any accepted 
 methods of scientific reasoning, but it is disproved by 
 several important facts. In the first place the decline 
 'Fiual Report of Ruy Ci.iiim. p 20 (par. 85). 
 
cHAp.ivm, VACCINATION A DELUSION. 247 
 
 in the first quarter of the century is a clear continuation 
 of a decline which had been going on during the preced- 
 ing forty years, and whatever causes produced that 
 earlier decline may very well have produced the con- 
 tinuation of it. Again, in the first quarter of the cen- 
 tury, vaccination was comparatively small in amount and 
 imperfectly perfonned. Since 1854 it has been com- 
 pulsory and almost universal; yet from 1854 to 1884 
 there is almost no decline of small-pox perceptible, and 
 the severest epidemic of the century occurred in the 
 midst of that period. Yet again, the one clearly marked 
 decline of small-pox has been in the ten years from 1886 
 to 1896, and it is precisely in this period that there has 
 been a great falling off in vaccination in London, from 
 only 7 per cent, less than the births in 1885 to 20.6 per 
 cent, less in 1894, the last year given in the Reports of 
 the Local Government board; and the decrease of vacci- 
 nations has continued since. 
 
 Biit even more important, as showing that vaccination 
 has had nothing whatever to do with the decrease of 
 small-pox, is the very close general parallelism of the line 
 showing the other zymotic diseases, the diminution of 
 which it is admitted has been caused by improved 
 hygienic conditions. The decline of this group of dis- 
 eases in the first quarter of this century, though some- 
 what less regular, is quite as well marked as in the case 
 of small-pox, as is also its decline in the last forty years 
 of the eighteenth century, strongly suggesting that both 
 declines are due to common causes. Let anyone ex- 
 amine this diagram carefully and say if it is credible that 
 from 1760 to 1800 both declines are due to some im- 
 proved conditions of hygiene and sanitation, but that 
 
348 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvin. 
 
 after 1800, while the- zymotics have continued to decline 
 from the same class of causes, one zymotic — small-pox — 
 must have been influenced by a new cause — vaccination, 
 to produce its corresponding decline. Yet this is the 
 astounding claim made by the Koyal Commissioners! 
 And if we turn to the other half of the diagram showing 
 the period of registration, the difficulty becomes even 
 greater. We first have a period from 1838 to 1870, in 
 which the zymotics actually rose; and from 1838 to 
 1871, averaging the great epidemic with the preceding 
 ten years, we find that small-jjox also rose, or at the best 
 remained quite stationary. From 1871 to 1875 
 zymotics are much lower, but run quite parallel with 
 small-pox; then there is a slight decline in both, and 
 zymotics and small-pox remain lower in the last ten years 
 than they have ever been before, although in this last 
 period vaccination has gTeatly diminished. 
 
 Turning to the upper line, showing the death-rate 
 from all causes, we again find a parallelism throughout, 
 indicating improved general conditions acting upon-aZi 
 diseases. The decline of the total death-rate from 1760 
 to 1810 is remai'kably great, and it continues at a some- 
 what less rate to 1830, just as do the zymotics and small- 
 pox. Then commences a period from 1840 to 1870 of 
 hardly perceptible decline partly due to successive epi- 
 demics of cholera, again running parallel with the course 
 of the zymotics and of small-pox; followed by a great 
 decline to the present time, corresponding in amount to 
 that at the beginning of the century. 
 
 The Commissioners repeatedly call attention to the 
 fact that the mortality from measles has not at all de- 
 clined, and that other zymotics have not declined, 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 249 
 
 in the same proportion as small-pox, and they argue: 
 " If improved sanitary conditions were the cause of 
 small-pox becoming less, we should expect to see that 
 they had exercised a similar influence over almost all 
 other diseases. "Why should they not produce the same 
 effect in the case of measles, scarlet fever, whooping- 
 cough, and indeed any disease spread by contagion or 
 infection and from which recovery was possible? " This 
 seems a most extraordinary position to be taken in view 
 of the well-known disappearance of various diseases at 
 different epochs. Why did leprosy almost disappear 
 from England at so early a period and plague later on? 
 Surely to some improved conditions of health. The 
 Commissioners do not, and we may presume cannot, tell 
 us why measles, of all the zymotic diseases, has rather 
 increased than diminished during the whole of this cen- 
 tury. Many students of epidemics hold that certain 
 diseases are liable to replace each other, as suggested by 
 Dr. Watt of Glasgow, in the case of measles and small- 
 pox. Dr. Farr, the great medical statistician, adopted 
 this view. In his Annual Report to the Registrar-Gen- 
 eral in 1872 (p. 224), he says: " The zymotic diseases 
 replace each other; and when one is rooted out it is apt 
 to be replaced by others which ravage the human race 
 indifferently whenever the conditions of healthy life are 
 wanting. They have this property in common with 
 weeds and other forms of life : as one species recedes an- 
 other advances." This last remark is very suggestive in 
 view of the modem germ-theory of these diseases. This 
 substitution theory is adopted by Dr. Creighton, who in 
 his " History of Epidemics in England " suggests that 
 plague was replaced by typhus fever and small-pox; and, 
 
250 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 later on, measles, which was insignificant before the 
 middle of the seventeenth century, began to replace the 
 latter disease. In order to show the actual state of the 
 mortality from these diseases during the epoch of regis- 
 tration, I have prepared a diagram (II.) giving the death- 
 rates for London of five of the chief zymotics, from the 
 returns of the Registrar-General, under the headings he 
 adopted down to 1868 — for to divide fevers into three 
 kinds for half the period, and to separate scarlatina and 
 diphtlieria, as first done in 1859, would prevent any use- 
 ful comparison from being made. 
 
 The lowest line, as in the larger diagram, shows small- 
 pox. Above it is measles, which keeps on the whole a 
 very level course, showing, however, the high middle 
 period of the zymotics and two lew periods, from 1869 
 to 1876, and from 1848 to 1856, the first nearly cor- 
 responding to the very high small-pox death-rate from 
 1870 to 1881; and the other just following the two 
 small-pox epidemics of 1844 and 1848, thus supporting 
 the view that it is in process of replacing that disease. 
 Scarlatina and dii^htheria show the high rate of zymotics 
 generally from 1848 to 1870, with a large though irregu- 
 lar decline subse(|uently. Whooping-cough shows a 
 nearly level course to 1882 and then a well-marked de- 
 cline. Fevers (typhus, enteric, and simple) show the 
 usual high middle period, but with an earlier and more 
 continuous decline than any of the other zymotic dis- 
 eases. "Wo thus see that all these diseases exhibit com- 
 mon features though in very different degrees, all 
 indicating the action of general causes, some of which it 
 is by no means difficult to point out. 
 
 In 1845 began the great development of our railway 
 
chAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 251 
 
 system, and with it the rapid growtli of London, from 
 a population of two millions in 1844 to one of four mil- 
 lions in 1884. This rapid growtli of population was at 
 first accompanied with overcrowding, and, as no ade- 
 quate measures of sanitation were then provided, the 
 conditions were prepared for that increase of zymotic 
 disease which constitutes so remarkable a feature of the 
 London death-rates between 184S and 1866. But at 
 the latter date commenced a considerable decline both in 
 the total mortality and in that from all the zymotic dis- 
 eases, except measles and small-pox, but more especially 
 in fevers and diphtheria, and this decrease is equally well 
 explained by the completion, in 1865, of that gigantic 
 work, the main drainage of London. The last marked 
 decline in small-pox, in fevers, and to a less marked de- 
 gree in whooping-cough, is coincident with a recognition 
 of the fact that hospitals are themselves often centres of 
 contagion, and the establishment of floating hospitals for 
 London cases of small-pox. Perhaps even more benefi- 
 cial was the modern system of excluding sewer-gas from 
 houses. 
 
 We thus see that the increase or decrease of the chief 
 zymotic diseases in London during the period of regis- 
 tration is clearly connected with adverse or favorable 
 hygienic conditions of a definite kind. During the 
 greater part of this period small-pox and measles alone 
 showed no marked increase or decrease, indicating that 
 the special measures affecting them had not been put in 
 practice, till ten years back the adoption of an effective 
 system of isolation in the case of small-pox has been fol- 
 lowed by such marked results wherever it has been 
 adopted as to show that this is the one method yet tried 
 
252 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvm. 
 
 that has produced any large and unmistakable effect, 
 thus confirming the experience of the town of Leicester, 
 which will be referred to later on. 
 
 The Commissioners, in their " Final Report," lay the 
 greatest stress on the decline of small-pox at the begin- 
 ning of the century, which " followed upon the intro- 
 duction of vaccination," both in England, in Western 
 Europe, and in the United States. They declare that 
 " there is no proof that sanitary improvements were the 
 main cause of the decline of small-pox," and that " no 
 evidence is forthcoming to show that during the first 
 quarter of the nineteenth century these improvements 
 differentiated that quarter from the last qiiarter or half 
 of the preceding century in any way at all comparable 
 to the extent of the differentiation in respect to small- 
 pox " (p. 19, par. 79). To the accuracy of these state- 
 ments I demur in the strongest manner. There is proof 
 that sanitary improvements were the main cause of this 
 decline of small-pox early in the century, viz., that the 
 other zymotic diseases as a whole showed a simultaneous 
 decline to a nearly equal amount, while the general 
 death-rate showed a decline to a much greater amount, 
 both admittedly due to improved hygienic conditions, 
 since there is no otJier hnown cause of the diminution of 
 disease; and that the Commissioners altogether ignore 
 these two facts affords, to my mind, a convincing proof 
 of their incapacity to deal with this great statistical ques- 
 tion. And, as to the second point, I maintain that there 
 is ample direct evidence, for those who look for it, of 
 great improvements in the hygienic conditions of Lon- 
 don quite adequate to account for the great decline in 
 the general mortality, and therefore equally adequate to 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 253 
 
 account for the lesser declines in zymotic diseases and in 
 small-pox, both of which began in the last century, and 
 only became somewhat intensified in the first quarter of 
 the present century, to be followed, twenty yeai's later, 
 by a complete check or even a partial rise. This rise 
 was equally marked in small-pox as in the other diseases, 
 and thus proved, as clearly as anything can be proved, 
 that its decline and fluctutations are in no way depend- 
 ent on vaccination, but are due to causes of the very 
 same general nature as in the case of other diseases. 
 
 To give the evidence for this improvement in London 
 hygiene would, however, break the continuity of the 
 discussion as to small-pox and vaccination; but the com- 
 parison of tlie general and zymotic death-rates with that 
 of small-pox exhibits so clearly the identity of the causes 
 which have acted upon them all as to render the detailed 
 examination of the various improved conditions that led 
 to the diminished mortality unnecessary. The diagram 
 showing the death-rates from these three causes of itself 
 furnishes a complete refutation of the Commissioners' 
 argument. The evidence as to the nature of the im- 
 proved conditions is given in an appendix at the end of 
 this chapter. 
 
 Sw-all-pox and other Diseases in Britain during the 
 Period of Registration. 
 
 "We have no general statistics of mortality in England 
 and Wales till the establishment of the Registration sys- 
 tem in 1838, but the results make up for their limited 
 duration by their superior accuracy. Till the year 1870 
 no record was kept of the amount of vaccination, except 
 
254 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 as performed by the public vaccinators; but since 1872 
 all vaccinations are recorded, and the numbers published 
 by the Local Government Board. My third diagram is 
 for the purpose of showing graphically the relation of 
 small-jiox to other zymotic diseases, and to vaccination, 
 for England and Wales. The lower line shows small- 
 pox, the middle one zymotic diseases, and the upper the 
 total death-rates. The relations of the three are much 
 the same as in the London diagram, the beginning of the 
 great decline of zymotics being in 1871, and that of 
 small-pox in 1872, but the line of small-pox is much 
 lower, and zymotics somewhat lower than in London, 
 due to a larger proportion of the inhabitants living under 
 comparatively healthy rural conditions. 
 
 But if the amount of vaccination were the main and 
 almost exclusive factor in determining the amount of 
 small-pox, there ought to be little or no difference be- 
 tween London and the countrj^ Biit here, as in all 
 other cases, the great factor of comparative density of 
 population in compared areas is seen to have its full 
 effect on small-pox mortality as in that of all other 
 zymotic diseases. 
 
 This non-relation between vaccination and small-pox 
 mortality is further proved by the dotted line, showing 
 the total vaccinations per cent, of births for the last 22 
 years, as given in the " Final Report " (p. 34). The 
 diminution of vaccination in various parts of the coun- 
 try began about 1881, and from 188G has been continu- 
 ous and rapid, and it is during this very period that 
 small-pox has been continuously less in amount than has 
 ever been known before. Both in the relation of Lon- 
 don small-jjox to that of the whole country, and In the 
 
CHAP. xvm. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 255 
 
 relation of small-pox to vaccination, we find proof of the 
 total inefficacy of that operation. 
 
 Small-pox in Scotland and in Ireland. 
 
 In their " Final Report " the Commissioners give us 
 Tables of the death-rates from small-pox, measles, and 
 scarlet fever in Scotland and Ireland; and from these 
 Tables I have constructed my diagram (IV.), combining 
 the two latter diseases for simplicity, and including the 
 period of compulsory vaccination and accurate registra- 
 tion in both countries. 
 
 The most interesting feature of this diagram is the 
 striking difference in the death-rates of the two coun- 
 tries: Scotland, the richer, more populous, and more 
 prosperous country having a much greater mortality, 
 both from the two zymoties and from small-pox than 
 poor, famine-stricken, depopulated Ireland. The maxi- 
 mum death-rate by the two zymoties in Scotland is con- 
 siderably more than double that in Ireland, and the 
 minimum is larger in the same proportion. In small- 
 pox the difference is also very large in the same direc- 
 tion, for although the death-rate during the great epi- 
 demic in 1872 was only one-fourth greater in Scotland, 
 yet as the epidemic there lasted three years, the total 
 death-rate for those years was nearly twice as great as 
 for the same period in Ireland, which, however, had a 
 small epidemic later on in 1878. Since 1883 small-pox 
 has been almost absent from both countries, as from 
 England; but taking the twenty years of repeated epi- 
 demics from 1864 to 1883, we find the average small- 
 pox death-rate of Scotland to be about 139, and that of 
 Ireland 85 per million, or considerably more than as 
 
256 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xnii. 
 
 three to two. But even Scotland had a much lower 
 small-pox mortality than England, the proportions being 
 as follows for the three years which included the epi- 
 demic of 1871-73: 
 
 Ireland, 800 per million in the three years. 
 Scotland, 1450 per million in the three years. 
 England, 2000 per million in the three years. 
 
 Now the Royal Commissioners make no remark what- 
 ever on these very suggestive facts, and they have ar- 
 ranged the information in tables in such a way as to ren- 
 der it very difficult to discover them; and this is another 
 proof of their incapacity to deal with statistical ques- 
 tions. They seem to be unable to look at small-pox from 
 any other point of view than that of the vaccinationists, 
 and thus miss the essential features of the evidence they 
 have before them. Every statistician knows the enor- 
 mous value of the representation of tabular statistics by 
 means of diagrammatic curves. It is the only way by 
 which in many cases the real teaching of statistics can be 
 detected. An enormous number of such diagrams, more 
 or less instructive and complete, were presented to them, 
 and, at great cost, are printed in the Reports ; but I can- 
 not find that, in their " Final Report," they have made 
 any adequate use of them, or have once referred to them, 
 and thus it is that they have overlooked so many of the 
 most vital teachings of the huge mass of figures with 
 which they had to deal. 
 
 It is one of the most certain of facts relating to sani- 
 tation that comparative density of population affects 
 disease, and especially the zymotic diseases, more than 
 any other factor that can be ascertained. It is mainly 
 a case of purity of the aii", and consequent purification of 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 257 
 
 the blood; and when we consider that breathing is the 
 most vital and most continuous of all organic functions, 
 that we must and do breathe every moment of our lives, 
 that the air we breathe is taken into the lungs, one of 
 the largest, and most delicate organs of the body, and 
 that the air so taken in acts directly upon the blood, and 
 thus affects the whole organism, we see at once how 
 vitally important it is that the air around us should be 
 as free as possible from contamination, either by the 
 breathing of other people, or by injurious gases or par- 
 ticles from decomposing organic matter, or by the germs 
 of disease. Hence it happens that under our present 
 terribly imperfect social arrangements the death-rate 
 (other things being equal) is a function of the popula- 
 tion per square mile, or perhaps more accurately of the 
 proportions of town to rural populations. 
 
 In the light of this consideration let us again com- 
 pare these diagrams of Irish, Scottish, and English 
 death-rates. In Ireland only 11 per cent, of the popula- 
 tion live in the towns of 100,000 inhabitants and up- 
 ward; in Scotland 30 per cent., and in England and 
 Wales 54 per cent. ; and we find the mortality from 
 zymotic diseases to be roughly proportional to these 
 figures. We see here unmistakable cause and efltect. 
 Impure air, with all else that overcrowding implies, on 
 the one hand; higher death-rate on the other. This ex- 
 plains the constant difference between London and rural 
 mortality, and it also explains what seems to have 
 puzzled the Commissioners more than anything else — 
 the intractability of some of the zymotics to ordinary 
 sanitation, as in the case of measles especially, and in a 
 less degree of whooping-cough — for in their case the 
 
358 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xthi. 
 
 continual growth of urban as opposed to rural popula- 
 tions has neutralized the effects of such improved con- 
 ditions as we have been able to introduce. 
 
 But the most important fact for our present purpose 
 is that small-pox is subject to this law just as are the 
 other zymotics, while it pays no attention whatever to 
 vaccination. The statistician to the Registrar-General 
 for Scotland gave evidence that ever since 1864 more 
 than 06 per cent, of the children bom had been vacci- 
 nated or liad had previous small-pox, and he makes no 
 suggestion of any deficiency that can be remedied. But 
 in the case of Ireland the medical commissioner for the 
 Local Government Board for Ireland, Dr. MacCabe, told 
 the Commissioners that vaccination there was very im- 
 perfect, and that a large proportion of the population was 
 " unprotected by vaccination," this state of things being 
 due to various causes, which he explained (2d Report, 
 QQ. 3059-3075). But neither Dr. MacCabe nor the 
 Commissioners notice the suggestive, and from their 
 point of view alarming, fact that imperfectly vaccinated 
 Ireland had had far less small-pox mortality than thor- 
 oughly well-vaccijiated Scotland, enormously less than 
 well-vaccinated England, and overwhelmingly less than 
 equally well-vaccinated London. Ireland — Scotland — 
 England — London — a graduated series in density of 
 population, and in zymotic death-rate; the small-pox 
 death-rate increasing in the same order and to an enor- 
 mous extent, quite regardless of the fact that the last 
 three have had practically complete vaccination during 
 the whole period of the comparison ; while Ireland alone, 
 with the lowest small-pox death-rate by far, has, on offi- 
 cial testimony, the least amount of vaccination. And 
 
cHAp.xTiii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 259 
 
 yet the majority of the Coinmissionei-s still pin their 
 faith on vaccination, and maintain that the cumulative 
 force of the testimony in its favor is ii-resistible ! And 
 further, that " sanitary improvements " cannot be 
 asserted to afford " an adequate explanation of the 
 duninished mortality from small-pox." 
 
 It will now he clear to my readers that these conclu- 
 sions, set forth as the final outcome of their seven years' 
 labors, are the very reverse of the true ones; and that 
 they have arrived at them by neglecting altogether to 
 consider, in their mutual relations, " those great masses 
 of national statistics " which alone can be depended on 
 to point out true causes, but have limited themselves to 
 such facts as the alleged mortalities of the vaccinated and 
 the unvaccinated, changes of age-incidence, and other 
 matters of detail, some of which are entirely vitiated by 
 untrustworthy evidence, while others require skilled 
 statistical treatment to arrive at true results — a subject 
 quite beyond the powers of untrained physicians and 
 lawyers, however eminent in their own special depart- 
 ments.^ 
 
 Small-pox and Vaccination on the Continent. 
 
 Before proceeding to discuss those special test-cases in 
 our own country which still more completely show the 
 impotence of vaccination, it will be well to notice a few 
 Continental States which have been, and still are, 
 quoted as affording illustrations of its benefits. 
 
 ' As an example of the Commissioners' statistical fallacies in treat- 
 ing the subject of changed age-incidence, see Mr. Alexander Paul's 
 "A Royal Commission's Arilhraetic" (King & Son, 1897), and, 
 especially, Mr. A. Milnes' " Statistics of Small pox and Vaccination" 
 in the Jmirnal of the Royal Statistical Society, September, 1897. 
 
260 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 We will first take Sweden, which has had fairly com- 
 plete national statistics longer than any other country; 
 and we are now fortunately able to give the facts on the 
 most recent official testimony — the Report furnished by 
 the Swedish Board of Health to the Royal Commission, 
 and published in the Appendix to their Sixth Report 
 (pp. 751--56). Such great authorities as Sir "William 
 Gull, Dr. Seaton, and Mr. Marson, stated before the 
 Committee of Enquiry in 1871 that Sweden was one of 
 the best vaccinated countries, and that the Swedes were 
 the best vaccinators. Sir John Simon's celebrated 
 paper, which was laid before Parliament in 1857 and 
 was one of the chief supports of compulsory legislation, 
 made much of Sweden, and had a special diagram to 
 illustrate the effects of vaccination on small-pox. This 
 paper is reproduced in the First Report of the recent 
 Royal Commission (pp. 61-113), and we find the usual 
 comparison of small-pox mortality in the last and present 
 century, which is held to be conclusive as to the benefits 
 of vaccination. He says vaccination was introduced in 
 1801, and divides his diagram into two halves, differently 
 colored before and after this date. It will be observed 
 that, as in England, there was a great and sudden de- 
 crease of small-pox mortality after 1801, the date of the 
 first vaccination in Sweden, and by 1812 the whole re- 
 duction of mortality was completed. But from that 
 date for more than sixty years there was an almost con- 
 tinuous increase in freqiiency and severity of the epi- 
 demics. To account for this sudden and enormous 
 decrease Sir John Simon states, in a note, and without 
 giving his authority: "About 1810 the vaccinations 
 were amounting to nearly a quarter of the number of 
 
CHAP. xvm. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 261 
 
 births." But these were almost certainly both adults 
 and children of various ages, and the official returns 
 noAv given show that down to 1812, when the whole re- 
 duction of small-pox mortality had been effected, only 
 8 per cent, of the population had been vaccinated. We 
 are told, in a note to the official tables, that the first suc- 
 cessful vaccination in Stockholm was at the end of 1810, 
 so that the earlier vaccinations must have been mainly 
 in the rural districts ; yet the earlier Stockholm epi- 
 demics in 1807, before a single inhabitant was vacci- 
 nated, and in 1825, were less severe than the six later 
 ones, when vaccination was far more general. 
 
 Bearing these facts in mind, and looking at Diagram 
 v., we see that it absolutely negatives the idea of vacci- 
 nation having had anything to do with the great reduc- 
 tion of small-pox mortality, which was almost all effected 
 before the first successful vaccination in the capital on 
 the I7th December, 1810! And this becomes still more 
 clear when we see that, as vaccination increased among 
 a population which, the official Report tells us, had the 
 most " perfect confidence " in it, small-pox epidemics in- 
 creased in virulence, especially in the capital (shown in 
 the diagram by the dotted peaks) where, in 1874, there 
 was a small-pox mortality of 7916 per million, reaching 
 10,290 per million during the whole epidemic, which 
 lasted two years. This was worse than the worst epi- 
 demic in London during the eighteenth century.^ 
 
 But although there is no sign of a relation between 
 
 ' The highest smallpox mortality in London was in 1772, when 
 3993 deaths were recorded in an estimated population of 727,000, or 
 adealh-rate of not quite 5500 per million. (See Second Report, p. 
 
362 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xtiii. 
 
 vaccination and the decrease of small-pox, there is a very 
 clear relation between it and the decrease in the general 
 mortality. This is necessarily shown on a much smaller 
 vertical scale to bring it into the diagram. If it were 
 on the same scale as the small-pox line, its downward 
 slope would be four times as rapid as it is. The decrease 
 in the century is from about 27,000 to 15,000 per mil- 
 lion, and, with the exception of the period of the Na- 
 poleonic wars, the improvement is nearly continuous 
 throughout. There has evidently been a great and con- 
 tinuous improvement in healthy conditions of life in 
 Sweden, as in our own country and probably in all other 
 European nations, and this improvement, or some special 
 portion of it, must have acted powerfully on small-jjox 
 to cause the enormous diminution of the disease down to 
 1812, with which, as we have seen, vaccination could 
 have had nothing to do. The only thing that vaccina- 
 tion seems to have done is to lia\'e acted as a check to 
 this diminution, since it is otherwise impossible to ex- 
 plain the complete cessation of iiuprovement as the 
 operation became more general; and this is more espe- 
 cially the case in view of the fact tliat the general death- 
 rate has continued to decrease at almost the same rate 
 down to the present day! 
 
 The enormous small-jiox mortality in Stockholm has 
 been exjilained as the result of verj^ deficient vaccina- 
 tion; but the Swedish Board of Health states that this 
 deficiency was more aj^jparent than real, first, because 25 
 per cent, of the children born in Stockholm die before 
 completing their first year, and also because of neglect 
 to report private vaccinations, so that " the low figures 
 for Stockholm depend more on the cases of vaccina- 
 
cDAr xvin. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 263 
 
 tion not having been reported tlian on their not hav- 
 ing been effected." (Sixth Rei^ort, p. 754, 1st col., 
 3d par.) 
 
 The plain and obvious teaching of tlie facts embodied 
 in this diagram is that small-i)ox mortality is in no way 
 influenced (except it be injuriously) by vaccination, but 
 that here, as elsewhere, it does bear an. obvious relation 
 to density of population; and also that, when unin- 
 fluenced by vaccination, it follows the same law of de- 
 crease with improved conditions of general health as does 
 the total death-rate. 
 
 This case of Sweden alone affords complete proof of 
 the nselessness of vaccination; yet the Commissioners in 
 the " Final Report " (par. 59) refer to the great diminu- 
 tion of small-pox mortality in the first twenty years of 
 the century as being di:e to it. They make no compari- 
 son with the total death-rate ; they say nothing of the in- 
 crease of small-pox from 1><24 to 1874; they omit all 
 reference to the terrible Stockholm epidemics increasing 
 continuously for fifty years of legally enforced vaccina- 
 tion and culminating in that of 1874, which was far 
 worse than tlie worst known in London during the whole 
 of the eighteenth century. Official blindness to the 
 most obvious facts and conclusions can hardly have a 
 more striking illustration than the appeal to the case of 
 Sweden as being favorable to tlie claims of vaccination. 
 
 My next diagram (]\'o. YT.) shows the course of small- 
 pox in Prussia since 181 G, with an indication of the epi- 
 demics in Berlin in l<8fi4 and 1871. Dr. Seatoii, in 
 1871, said to the Committee on Yaccination (Q. SCOS), 
 "T know Prussia is well protected," and the general 
 medical opinion was expressed thus in an article in the 
 
264 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette (May 24, 1871): " Prussia is the coun- 
 try where revaccination is most generally practised, the 
 law making the precaution obligatory on every person, 
 and the authorities conscientiously watching over its 
 performance. As a natural result, cases of small-pox 
 are rare." Never was there a more glaring untruth 
 than this last statement. It is true that revaccination 
 was enforced in public schools and other institutions, 
 and most rigidly in the Army, so that a very large pro- 
 portion of the adult male population must have been re- 
 vaccinated ; but, instead of cases of small-pox being rare, 
 there had been for the twenty-four years preceding 1871 
 a much greater small-pox mortality in Prussia than in 
 England; the annual average being 248 per million for 
 the former and only 210 for the latter. A comparison 
 of the two diagrams shows the difference at a glance. 
 English small-pox only once reached 400 per million (in 
 1852), while in Prussia it four times exceeded that 
 amount. And immediately after the words above 
 quoted were written, the great epidemic of 1871-72 
 caused a mortality in revaccinated Prussia more than 
 double that of England. Noiv, after these facts have 
 been persistently made known by the anti-vaccinators, 
 the amount of vaccination in Prussia before 1871 is 
 depreciated, and Dr. A. P. Hopkirk actually classes it 
 among countries "without compulsory vaccination." 
 (See table and diagram opposite p. 238 in the 2d Re- 
 port.) 
 
 In the city of Berlin we have indicated two epidemics, 
 that in 1864, with a death-rate a little under 1000 per 
 milhon, while that in 1871 rose to 6150 per million, or 
 considerably more than twice as juuch as that of London 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 265 
 
 in the same year, although the city must have contained 
 a very large male population which had passed through 
 the Army, and had therefore been revaccinated. 
 
 I give one more diagram (No. VII.) of small-pox in 
 Bavaria, from a table laid before the Royal Commission 
 by Dr. Hopkirk for the purpose of showing the results of 
 long-continued compulsory vaccination. He stated to 
 the Commission that vaccination was made compulsory 
 in 1807, and that in 1871 there were 30,742 cases of 
 small-pox, of which 95.7 per cent, were vaccinated. (2d 
 Report, Q. 1489.) He then explains that this was 
 because " nearly the whole population was vaccinated " ; 
 but he does not give any figures to prove that the vacci- 
 nated formed more than this proportion of the whole 
 population; and as the vaccination age was one year, it 
 is certain that they did not do so.^ He calls this being 
 " slightly attacked," and argues that it implies " some 
 special protection." No doubt the small-pox mortality 
 of Bavaria was rather low, about equal to that of Ire- 
 land; but in 1871 it rose to over 1000 per million, while 
 Ireland had only 600, besides which the epidemic lasted 
 for two years, and was therefore very nearly equal to 
 that of England. But we have the explanation when 
 we look at the line showing the other zymotics, for these 
 are decidedly lower than those of England, showing bet- 
 ter general sanitary conditions. In Bavaria, as in all 
 the other countries we have examined, the behavior of 
 small-pox shows no relation to vaccination, but the very 
 closest relation to the other zymotics and to density of 
 
 ' The small-pox deaths under oue year in England have varied dur- 
 ing the last fifty years from 8.6 to 27 per cent, of the -whole. (See 
 "Final Report," p. 154.) 
 
266 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvui. 
 
 population. The fact of 95.7 per cent, of the small-pox 
 patients having been vaccinated agrees with that of our 
 Highgate Hospital, but is even more remarkable as ap- 
 plying to the population of a whole country, and is alone 
 sufficient to condemn vaccination as useless. And as 
 there were 5070 deaths to these cases, the fatality was 
 16.5 per cent., or almost the same as that of the last cen- 
 tury; so that here again, and on a gigantic scale, the 
 theory that the disease is " mitigated " by vaccination, 
 even where not prevented, is shown to be utterly base- 
 less. Yet this case of Bavaria was chosen by a strong 
 vaccinist as affording a striking proof of the value of 
 vaccination when thoroughly carried out; and I cannot 
 find that the Commissioners took the trouble to make the 
 comparisons here given, which would at once have shown 
 them that what the case of Bavaria really proves is the 
 complete uselessness of vaccination. 
 
 This most misleading, unscientific, and unfair pro- 
 ceeding, of giving certain figures of small-pox mortality 
 among the well-vaccinated, and then, without any ade- 
 quate comparison, asserting that they afford a proof of 
 the value of vaccination, may be here illustrated by an- 
 other example. In the original paper by Sir John 
 Simon on the " History and Practice of Vaccination," 
 presented to Parliament in 1857, there is, in the Appen- 
 dix, a statement by Dr. T. Graham Balfour, surgeon to 
 the Eoyal Mlitary Asylum for Orphans at Chelsea, as 
 to the effects of vaccination in that institution — that 
 since the opening of the Asylum in 1803 the Vaccination 
 Register has been accurately kept, and that everyone 
 who entered was vaccinated unless he had been vacci- 
 nated before or had had small-pox; and he adds: " Satis- 
 
ciiAP. xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 2G7 
 
 factory evidence can therefore, in this instance, be ob- 
 tained that they were all protected." Then he gives the 
 statistics, showing that during forty-eight years, from 
 1803 to 1851, among 31,705 boys there were thirty- 
 nine cases and four deaths, giving a mortality at the rate 
 of 12G per million on the average nnmber in the Asylum, 
 and concludes by sa3'ing: " The preceding facts appear 
 to offer most conclusive proofs of the value of vaccina- 
 tion." But he gives no comparison with other boys of 
 about the same age and living under equally healthy 
 conditions, but who had not been so uniformly or so re- 
 cently vaccinated; for it must be remembered that, as 
 this was long before the epoch of compulsory vaccina- 
 tion, a large proportion of the boys would be unvacci- 
 nated at their entrance, and would therefore have the 
 alleged benefit of a recent vaccination. But when we 
 make the comparison, which both Dr. Balfour and Sir 
 John Simon failed to make, we find that these well-vac- 
 cinated and protected boys had a greafer small-pox mor- 
 tality than the imperfectly protected outsiders. For in 
 the First Keport of the Commission (p. 114, Table B) 
 we find it stated that in the period of optional vaccination 
 (1847-53) the death-rate from small-pox of persons from 
 ten to fifteen years ^ was 94 per million! Instead of 
 offering " most conclusive proofs of the value of vacci- 
 nation," his own facts and figures, if they prove 
 anything at all, prove not only the uselessness but 
 the evil of vaccination, and that it really tends to in- 
 crease small-pox mortality. And this conclusion is 
 
 ' This almost exactly agrees with the ages of the boys, who are ad- 
 mitted between nine and eleven, and leave at fourteen. (See Low's 
 " Handbook of London Charities.") 
 
268 
 
 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 Chap, xviii. 
 
 also reached by Professor Adolf Vogt, who, in the 
 elaborate statistical paper sent by him to the Royal Com- 
 mission, and printed in their Sixth Report, bnt not other- 
 wise noticed by them, shows, by abundant statistics from 
 various countries, that the small-pox death-rate and 
 fatality have been increased during epidemics occurring 
 in the epoch of vaccination. 
 
 One more point deserves notice before leaving this 
 part of the enquiry, which is the specially high small- 
 pox mortality of great commercial seaports. The 
 following table, compiled from Dr. Pierce's " Vital 
 Statistics " for the Continental towns and from the 
 Reports of the Royal Commission for those of our own 
 country, is very remarkable and instructive. 
 
 Namb of Town. 
 
 
 
 Tear. 
 
 Small POX Death-ratb 
 
 
 PER Million. 
 
 Hamburgh 1871 
 
 15,440 
 
 Rotterdam, 
 
 
 
 1871 
 
 14,280 
 
 Cork, 
 
 
 
 1872 
 
 9,600 
 
 Sunderland, 
 
 
 
 1871 
 
 8.650 
 
 Stockholm, 
 
 
 
 1874 
 
 7,916 
 
 Trieste, 
 
 
 
 1872 
 
 6,980 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
 Portsmouth, 
 
 
 
 1871 
 1872 
 
 5,410 
 4,420 
 
 Dublin, 
 
 
 
 1872 
 
 4,830 
 
 Liverpool, 
 Plymouth, 
 
 
 
 1871 
 1872 
 
 3,890 
 3,000 
 
 The small-pox death-rate in the case of the lowest of 
 these towns is very much higher than in London during 
 the same epidemic, and it is quite clear that vaccination 
 can have had nothing to do with this difference. For if 
 it be alleged that vaccination was neglected in Ham- 
 burg and Rotterdam, of which we find no particulars, 
 this cannot be said of Cork, Sunderland, and Newcastle. 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 269 
 
 Again, if the very limited and imperfect vaccination of 
 the first quarter of the century is to have the credit of 
 the striking reduction of small-pox mortality that then 
 occurred, as the Royal Commissioners claim, a small 
 deficiency in the very much more extensive and better 
 vaccination that generally prevailed in 1871 cannot be 
 the explanation of a small-pox mortality greater than in 
 the worst years of London when there was no vaccina- 
 tion. Partial vaccination cannot be claimed as produc- 
 ing marvellous effects at one time and less than nothing 
 at all at another time, yet this is what the advocates of 
 vaccination constantly do. But on the sanitation theory 
 the explanation is simple. Mercantile seaports have 
 grown up along the banks of harbors or tidal rivers 
 whose waters and shores have been polluted by sewage 
 for centuries. They are always densely crowded, owing 
 to the value of situations as near as possible to the ship- 
 ping. Hence there is always a large population living 
 under the worst sanitary conditions, with bad drainage, 
 bad ventilation, abundance of filth and decaying organic 
 matter, and all the conditions favorable to the spread of 
 zymotic diseases and their exceptional fatality. Such 
 populations have maintained to our day the insanitary 
 conditions of the last century, and thus present us with 
 a similarly great small-pox mortality, without any re- 
 gard to the amount of vaccination that may be practised. 
 In this case they ilhistrate the same principle which so 
 well explains the very different amounts of small-pox 
 mortality in Ireland, Scotland, England, and London, 
 with hardly any difference in the quantity of vac- 
 cination. 
 
 The Royal Commissioners, with all these facts before 
 
270 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvni. 
 
 them or at their command, have made none of these com- 
 parisons. They give the figures of small-pox mortality, 
 and either explain them by alleged increase or decrease 
 of vaccination, or argue that, as some other disease — 
 such as measles — did not decrease at the same time or to 
 the same amount, therefore sanitation cannot have influ- 
 enced small-pox. They never once compare small-pox 
 mortality with general mortality, or with the rest of the 
 group of zymotics, and thus fail to see their wonderfully 
 close agreement — their simultaneous rise and fall — 
 which so clearly shows their subjection to the same influ- 
 ences and proves that no special additional influence can 
 have operated in the case of small-pox. 
 
 IV. 
 
 TWO GREAT EXPERIMENTS WHICH ARE CONCLUSIVE 
 AGAINST VACCINATION. 
 
 Those who disbelieve in the efficacy of vaccination to 
 protect against small-pox are under the disadvantage 
 that, owing to the practice having been so rapidly 
 adopted by all civilized people, there are no communi- 
 ties which have rejected it while adopting methods of 
 general sanitation, and which have also kept satisfactory 
 records of mortality from various causes. Any such 
 country would have afforded what is termed a " control " 
 or test experiment, the absence of which vitiates all the 
 evidence of the so-called " variolous test " in Jenner's 
 time, as was so carefully pointed out before the Com- 
 mission by Dr. Creighton and Professor Crookshank. 
 We do, however, now possess two such tests on a limited, 
 but still a sufficient, scale. The first is that of the town 
 
CBAP. xviir. 'VACCINATION A DELUSION S71 
 
 of Leicester, which for the last twenty years has rejected 
 vaccination till it has now almost vanished altogether. 
 The second is that of our xVrmy and iSTavy, in which, for 
 a quarter of a century, every recruit has been revacci- 
 nated, unless he has recently been vaccinate<l or has had 
 small-pox. In the first we have an almost wholly " un- 
 protected " population of nearly 200,000, which, on the 
 theory of the vaccinators, should have suffered exception- 
 ally from small-pox ; in the other we have a picked body 
 of 220,000 men, who, on the evidence of the medical 
 authorities, are as well protected as they know how to 
 make them, and among whom, therefore small-pox 
 should be almost or quite absent, and small-pox deaths 
 quite unknown. Let us see, then, what has happened 
 in these two cases. 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable and the most complete 
 body of statistical evidence presented to the Commission 
 was that of Mr. Thomas Biggs, a sanitaiw engineer and a 
 town councillor of Leicester. It consists of fifty-one 
 tables exhibiting the condition of the population in rela- 
 tion to health and disease from almost every conceivable 
 point of view. The subject is further illustrated by 
 sixteen diagrams, many of them in colors, calculated to 
 exhibit to the eye in the most clear and simple manner 
 the relations of vaccination and sanitation to small-pox 
 and to the general health of the people, and especially 
 of the children, in whose behalf it is always alleged vac- 
 cination is enforced. From this wealth of material I 
 can give only two diagrams exhibiting the main facts of 
 the case, as shown by Mr. Biggs' statistics in the Fourth 
 Report of the Royal Commission, all obtained from offi- 
 cial sources. 
 
273 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvin. 
 
 The first diagram (No. VIII.) shows in the upper part, 
 by a dotted Hne, the total vaccinations, public and pri- 
 vate, since 1850.^ The middle line shows the mortality 
 per million living from the chief zymotic diseases — 
 fevers, measles, whooping-congh, and diphtheria — while 
 the lower line gives the small-pox mortality. We no- 
 tice here a high mortality from zymotics and from small- 
 pox epidemics, during the whole period of nearly com- 
 plete vaccination from 1854 to 1873. Then commenced 
 the movement against vaccination, owing to its proved 
 uselessness in the great epidemic, when Leicester had a 
 very much higher small-pox mortality than London, 
 which has resulted in a continuous decline, especially 
 rapid for the last fifteen years, till it is now reduced to 
 almost nothing. For that period, not only has small- 
 pox mortality been continuously very low, but the 
 zymotic diseases have also regularly declined to a lowev 
 amount than has ever been known before. 
 
 The second diagram (ISTo. IX.) is even more impor- 
 tant, as showing the influence of vaccination in increas- 
 ing both the infantile and the total death-rates to an 
 extent which even the strongest opponents of that 
 operation had not thought possible. There are four solid 
 lines on the diagram showing respectively, in five-year 
 averages from 1838-42 to 1890-95, (1) the total death- 
 rate per 1000 living, (2) the infant death-rate under 
 five years, (3) the same under one year, and (4), the 
 lowest of all, the small-pox death-rate under five 
 years. 
 
 ' From 1850 to 1873 the private vaccinations have been estimated 
 accordiug to tlieir proportion of the whole since they have been 
 officially recorded. 
 
CHAP, iviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 273 
 
 The dotted line shows the percentage of total vaccina- 
 tions to births. 
 
 The first thing to be noted is the remarkable simul- 
 taneous rise of all four death-rates to a maximum in 
 1868-72, at the same time that the vaccination rate 
 attained its maximum. The decline in the death-rates 
 from 1852 to 1860 was due to sanitary improvements 
 which had then commenced; but the rigid enforcement 
 of vaccination checked the decline owing to its produc- 
 ing a gi'eat increase of mortality in children, an increase 
 which ceased as soon as vaccination diminished. This 
 clearly shows that the deaths which have only recently 
 been acknowledged as due to vaccination, directly or 
 indirectly, are really so numerous as largely to affect the 
 total death-rate; but they were formerly wholly con- 
 cealed, and are still partially concealed, by being regis- 
 tered under such headings as erysipelas, syphilis, 
 diarrhoea, bronchitis, convulsions, or other proximate 
 cause of death. ^ 
 
 Here, then, we have indications of a very terrible fact, 
 the deaths, by various painful and often lingering dis- 
 eases, of thousands of children as the result of that use- 
 less and dangerous operation termed vaccination. It is 
 difficult to explain the coincidences exhibited by this 
 
 ' Mr. Biggs gave lii.s evidence in 1891, and was obliged to rely on 
 an estimate of tlie increased population since 1881. Tliis was after- 
 ward found to be too high; the Commissioners urged that this would 
 cause the decreased mortality during the decade to be greater than it 
 really was. This is true; but the possible amount of the error is 
 shown in the present diagram by the added death rales for 1893-96, 
 which are calculated from the last census populations. Thus, the 
 only change produced in diagram IX. would be, that the decline 
 from 1878-83 to 1893-96 would be a little more regular than is shown, 
 TVbjle its general teq,ching would remain ftbsplutely unaffected, 
 
374 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 diagraui in any other way, and it is strikingly corrobo- 
 rated by a diagram of infant mortality in London and in 
 England which I laid before the Royal Commission, and 
 which I here reiDroduce (No. X.). The early part of 
 this diagram is from a table calculated by Dr. Farr from 
 all the materials available in the Bills of Mortality; and 
 it shows for each twenty years the marvellous diminu- 
 tion in infant mortality during the hundred years from 
 1730 to 1830, proving that there was some continuous 
 beneficial change in the conditions of life. The ma- 
 terials for a continuation of the diagram are not given by 
 the Kegistrar-General in the case of London, and I have 
 had to calculate them for England. But from 1840 to 
 1890 we find a very slight fall, both in the death-rate 
 under five years and under one year for England, and 
 under one year for London, although both are still far 
 too high, as indicated by the fact that in St. Saviour's it 
 is 213, and in Hampstead only 123 per 1000 births. 
 There appear to have been some causes which checked 
 the dimunition in London after 1840, then produced an 
 actual rise from 1860 to 1870, followed by a slight but 
 continuous fall since. The check to the dimunition of 
 the infant death-rate is sufficiently accounted for by that 
 extremely rapid growth of London by immigration 
 which followed the introduction of railways, and which 
 would appreciably increase the child-population (by im- 
 migration of families) in proportion to the births. The 
 rise from 1860 to 1870 exactly coiTesponds to the rise 
 in Leicester, and to the strict enforcement of infant vac- 
 cination, Avhich was continuously high during this 
 period; while the steady fall since corresponds also to. 
 that continuous fall in the vaccination rate due to a 
 
cHAP.xMii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 375 
 
 growing conviction of its uselessness and its diinger. 
 These facts strongly support the contention that vaccina- 
 tion, instead of saving thousands of infant lives, as has 
 been claimed, really destroys them by thousands, en- 
 tirely neutralizing that great reduction which was in 
 progress from the last century, and which the general 
 improvement in health would certainly have favored. 
 It may be admitted that the increasing emjiloyment of 
 women in factories is also a contribiitory cause of infant 
 mortality; but there is no proof that a less proportion 
 of women have been thus employed during the last 
 twenty years, while it is certain that there has been a 
 great diminution of \'accination, which is now admitted 
 to be a vera causa of infant mortality. 
 
 Before leaving the case of Leicester it will be instruct- 
 ive to compare it with some other towns of which statis- 
 tics are available. And first, as to the great epidemic 
 of 1871-72 in Leicester and in Birmingham. Both 
 towns were then well vaccinated, and both suffered 
 severely by the epidemic. Thus: 
 
 Leicester. Bikminoham. 
 Small-pox cases per 10,000 population, 337 313 
 
 deaths " " " . . 35 35 
 
 But since then, Leicester has rejected vaccination to 
 such an extent that in 1894 it had only seven vaccina- 
 tions to ten thousand population, while Birmingham had 
 240, or more than thirty times as much, and the pro- 
 portion of its inhabitants who have been vaccinated is 
 probably less than half those of Birmingham. The 
 Commissioners themselves state that the disease was 
 brought into the town of Leicester on twelve separate 
 
276 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvm. 
 
 occasions during the recent epidemic, yet the following 
 is the result: 
 
 1891-94. Lgicbster. Biriuinohau. 
 
 Small-pox cases per 10,000 population, . 19 63 
 
 deaths " " " . . 1.1 5 
 
 Here we see, that Leicester had less than one-third 
 the cases of small-pox, and less than one-fourth the 
 deaths in proportion to population than well-vaccinated 
 Birmingham; so that both the alleged protection from 
 attacks of the disease, and mitigation of its severity 
 when it does attack, are shown, not only to be absolutely 
 untrue, but to apply, in this case, to the absence of 
 vaccination ! 
 
 But we have yet another example of an extremely 
 well-vaccinated town in this epidemic — Warrington, an 
 official report on which has just been issued. It is 
 stated that 99.2 per cent, of the population had been vac- 
 cinated, yet the comparison with unvaccinated Leicester 
 stands as follows: 
 
 Epidemic of 1892-93. Lbioestbr. Wakrinoton. 
 
 Small-pox cases per 10,000 population, . 19.3 133.3 
 
 deaths " " " . 1.4 11.4 
 
 Here, then, we see that in the thoroughly vaccinated 
 town the cases are more than six times, and the deaths 
 more than eight times, that of the almost unvaccinated 
 town, again proving that the most efficient vaccination 
 does not diminish the number of attacks, and does not 
 mitigate the severity of the disease, but that both these 
 results follow from sanitation and isolation. 
 
 Now let us see how the Commissioners, in their 
 " Final Keport " deal with the above facts, which are 
 surely most vital to the very essence of the enquiry, and 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 277 
 
 the statistics relating to which have been laid before 
 them with a wealth of detail not equalled in any other 
 case. Practically they ignore them altogether. Of course 
 I am referring to the Majority Keport, to which alone 
 the Government and the unenlightened public are likely 
 to pay any attention. Even the figures above quoted as 
 to Leicester and WaiTington are to be found only in the 
 Report of the Minority, who also give the case of another 
 town, Dewsbury, which has partially rejected vaccina- 
 tion, but not nearly to so large an extent as Leicester; 
 and in the same epidemic it stood almost exactly between 
 unvaccinated Leicester and well-vaccinated Warrington, 
 thus: 
 
 Leicester, .... had 1.1 mortality per 10,000 living. 
 Dewsbury, .... " 6.7 " " " " 
 
 Warrington, .... " 11.8 " " 
 
 Here again we see that it is the unvaccinated towns 
 that suffer least, not the most vaccinated. The public 
 of course have been ten'orized by the case of Gloucester, 
 where a large default in vaccination was followed by a 
 very severe epidemic of small-pox. The Majority Re- 
 port refers to this in par. 373, intending to hold it up as 
 a warning, but strangely enough in so important a docu- 
 ment, say the reverse of what they mean to say, giving 
 to it " very little," instead of " very much " small-pox. 
 This case, however, has really nothing whatever to do 
 with the question at issue, because, although anti-vacci- 
 nators maintain that vaccination has not the least effect 
 in preventing or mitigating small-pox, they do not main- 
 tain that the absence of vaccination prevents it. What 
 they urge is that sanitation and isolation are the effect- 
 ive and only preventives; and it was because Leicester 
 
278 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 attended thoroughly to these matters, and Gloucester 
 wholly neglected them, that the one suffered so little and 
 the other so much in the recent epidemic. On this sub- 
 ject every enquirer should read the svunmary of the facts 
 given in the Minority Report, par. 261. 
 
 To return to the Majority Report. Its references to 
 Leicester are scattered over 80 pages, referring sepa- 
 rately to the hospital staff, and the relations of vacci- 
 nated and unvaccinated to small-pox; while in only a 
 few paragraphs (par. 480-486) do they deal with the 
 main question and the results of the system of isolation 
 adopted. These results they endeavor to minimize by 
 declaring that the disease was remarkably " slight in its 
 fatality," yet they end by admitting that " the experi- 
 ence of Leicester affords cogent evidence that the vigi- 
 lant and prompt application of isolation ... is a most 
 powerful agent in limiting the spread of small-pox." A 
 little further on (par. 500) they say, when discussing 
 this very point — how far sanitation may be relied on in 
 place of vaccination — " The experiment has never been 
 tried." Surely a town of 180,000 inhabitants which 
 has neglected vaccination for twenty years, is an experi- 
 ment. But a little further on we see the reason of this 
 refusal to consider Leicester a test experiment. Par. 
 502 begins thus: " The question we ai-e now discussing 
 must, of course, be argued on the hypothesis that vacci- 
 nation affords protection against small-pox." What an 
 amazing basis of argument for a Commission supposed 
 to be enquiring into this very point! They then con- 
 tinue: " Who can possibly say that if the disease once 
 entered a town the population of which was entirely or 
 almost entirely unprotected, it would not spread with a 
 
OHAP xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 279 
 
 rapidity of which we have in recent times had no experi- 
 ence?" But Leicester is such a town. Its infants — 
 the class which always suffers in the largest numbers — 
 are almost wholly unvaccinated, and the great majority 
 of its adults have, according to the bulk of the medical 
 supporters of vaccination, long outgrown the benefits, if 
 any, of infant-vaccination. The disease has been intro- 
 duced into the town twenty times before 1884, and 
 twelve times during the last epidemic (" Final Eeport," 
 par. 482 and 483). The doctors have been asserting for 
 years that once small-pox comes to Leicester it will run 
 through the town like wild-fire. But instead of that it 
 has been quelled with far less loss than in any of the 
 best vaccinated towns in England. But the Commis- 
 sioners ignore this actual experiment, and soar into the 
 regions of conjecture vnth, " Who can possibly say? " — ■ 
 concluding the paragraph with " a priori reasoning on 
 such a question is of little or no value." Very true. 
 But a posteriori reasoning, from the cases of Leicester, 
 Birmingham, Warrington, Dewsbury, and Gloucester, is 
 of value ; but it is of value as showing the utter useless- 
 ness of vaccination, and it is therefore, perhaps, wise for 
 the professional upholders of vaccination to ignore it. 
 But surely it is not wise for a presumably impartial Com- 
 mission to ignore it as it is ignored in this Report.^ 
 
 ' Although the Commission make no mention of Mr. Biggg' table 
 and diagrams showing the rise of infant mortality with increased 
 vaccination, and its fall as vaccination diminished, they occupied a 
 whole day cross-examining him upon them, endeavoring by the 
 minutest criticism to diminish their importance. Especially it was 
 nrged that the increase or decrease of mortality did not agree in 
 detail with the increase or decrease of vaccination, forgetting that 
 tlicrc are numerous causes contributing to all variations of death- 
 
280 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvm. 
 
 The Army and Navy as a Concluswe Test. 
 
 In the Eeport of the Medical Officer of the Local 
 Government Board for 1884, it is alleged that, when an 
 adult is revaccinated, " he will receive the full measure 
 of protection that vaccination is capable of giving him." 
 In the same year the Medical Officer of the General Post 
 Office stated in a circular, "It is desirable, in order to 
 obtain full security, that the operation [vaccination] 
 should be repeated at a later period of life"; and the 
 circular of the National Health Society, already referred 
 to, states that " soldiers who have been revaccinated can 
 live in cities intensely affected by small-pox without 
 themselves suffering to any appreciable degree from the 
 disease." Let us then see how far these official state- 
 ments are true or false. 
 
 In their " Final Report " the Commissioners give the 
 statistics of small-pox mortality in the Army and Navy 
 from 1860 to 1894; and, although the latest order for 
 the vaccination of the whole force in the Navy was only 
 made in 1871, there can be no doubt that, practically, 
 the whole of the men had been revaccinated long before 
 that period; ^ but certainly since 1873 all without excep- 
 tion, both English and foreign, were revaccinated; and 
 in the Army every recruit has been revaccinated since 
 1860 (see 2d Report, Q. 3453, 3455; and for the Navy, 
 
 rate, while vaccination is only alleged to be a contributory cause, 
 clearly visible in general results, but not to be detected in smaller 
 variations (see Fourth Report, Q. 17,513-17,744, or pp. 370 to 381). 
 Mr. Biggs' cross-examination in all occupies 110 pages of the 
 Report. 
 
 ' It was introduced into the Navy in 1801, and in that year the 
 medical officers of the fleet presented Jenner with a special gold 
 medal! 
 
CHAP, xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 281 
 
 Q. 2645, 6, 3212-13, and 3226-3229). Brigade-Sur- 
 geon William Nash, M. D., informed the Commission 
 that the vaccination and revaccination of the Army was 
 " as perfect as endeavors can make it," and that he can 
 make no suggestion to increase its thoroughness (Q. 
 3559, 3560). 
 
 Turning now to the diagram (No. XI.) which repre- 
 sents the official statistics, the two lower lines show the 
 small-pox death-rate per 100,000 of the force of the 
 Army and Navy for each year, from 1860 to 1894. 
 The lower thick line shows the Army mortality, the thin 
 line that of the Navy. The two higher lines show the 
 total death-rate from disease of the Navy, and of the 
 Home force of the Army, as the tables supplied do not 
 separate the deaths by disease of that portion of the 
 Army stationed abroad. 
 
 Looking first at these upper lines, we notice two inter- 
 esting facts. The first is, the large and steady improve- 
 ment of both forces as regards health-conditions during 
 the thirty-five years; and the second is the considerable 
 and constant difference in the disease mortality of the 
 two services, the soldiers having throughout the whole 
 period a much higher mortality than the sailors. The 
 decrease of the general mortality is clearly diie to the 
 great improvements that have been effected in diet, in 
 ventilation, and in general health-conditions; while the 
 difference in health between the two forces is almost 
 certainly due to two causes, the most important being 
 that the sailors spend the greater part of every day in the 
 open air, and in air of the maximum purity and health- 
 giving properties, that of the open sea; while soldiers 
 live mostly in camps or barracks, often in the vicinity of 
 
283 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvm. 
 
 large towns, and in a more or less impure atmosphere. 
 The other difference is that soldiers are constantly suh- 
 ject to temptations and resulting disease from which 
 sailors, while ailoat, are wholly free. 
 
 Turning now to the lower lines, we see that, as re- 
 gards small-pox mortality, the Navy suffered most down 
 to 1880, but that since that period the Army has had 
 rather the higher mortality. This has been held to be 
 due to the less perfect vaccination of the JSTavy in the 
 earlier period, but of that there is no proof, while there is 
 evidence as to the causes of the improvement in general 
 health. Staff-Surgeon T. J. Preston, R. N., stated them 
 thus: " Shorter sea-voyages; greater care not to over- 
 crowd ; plentiful and frequent supplies of fresh food ; the 
 introduction of condensed water; and the care that is 
 now taken in the general economy and hygiene of the 
 vessels " (Q. 3253). These seem sufficient to have pro- 
 duced also the comparative improvement in small-pox 
 mortality, especially as the shorter voyages would enable 
 the patients to be soon isolated on shore. The question 
 we now have to consider is, whether the amount of small- 
 pox here shown to exist in both Army and Navy demon- 
 strates the " full security " that revaccination is alleged 
 to give; whether, as a matter of fact, our soldiers and 
 sailors, when exposed to the contagion of intense small- 
 pox, do suffer to " any appreciable degree "; and lastly, 
 whether they show any immunity whatever when com- 
 pared TOth similar populations who have been either 
 very partially or not at all revaccinated. It is not easy 
 to find a fairly comparable population, but after due con- 
 sideration it seems to me that Ireland will be the best 
 available, as the statistics are given in the Commis- 
 
ouAp.xYiii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 283 
 
 sioners' Reports, and it can hardly be contended that it 
 has any special advantages over our soldiers and sailors, 
 — rather the other way. I have therefore given a dia- 
 gram (XII.), in which a dotted line shows the small-pox 
 mortality of the Irish people of the ages 15 to 45 in com- 
 parison with the Army and the Navy mortality for the 
 same years. (The figiires for this diagram, as regards 
 Ireland, have been calculated from the table at p. 37 of 
 the " Final Report," corrected for the ages 15 to 45 by 
 means of Table J. at p. 274 of the Second Report.) 
 
 This dotted line shows us that, with the exception of 
 the great epidemic of 1871, when for the bulk of the 
 Irish patients there was neither isolation nor proper 
 treatment, the small-pox mortality of the Irish popula- 
 tion of similar ages has been on the average below that 
 of either the Army or the Navy; while if we take the 
 mean mortality of the three for the same period (1864- 
 94) inclusive, the result is as follows : 
 
 Army, mean of the annual small-pox death rate, 58 per million. 
 Navy, " " " " 90 
 
 Ireland (ages 15-45), " " " 65.8'" 
 
 If we combine the Army and Navy death-rates in the 
 proportion of their mean strength so as to get the true 
 average of the two forces, the death-rate is 64.3 per mil- 
 lion, or almost exactly the same as that of Ireland. 
 
 Now if there were no other evidence which gave simi- 
 lar results, this great test case of large populations com- 
 
 ' These figures (for the Army and Navy) are obtained by averaging 
 the annual death rates given in the tables referred to, and are tliere- 
 fore not strictly accurate on account of the irregularly varying 
 strength of the forces. But the error is small. In the case of the 
 Navy, from 1864 to 1888 the tables enable the mortality to be accu- 
 rately calculated, and the result comes out more, by nearly six per 
 
284 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xvin. 
 
 pared over a long series of years, is alone almost 
 conclusive; and we ask with amazement — Why did not 
 the Commissioners make some such comparison as this, 
 and not allow the public to be deceived by the grossly 
 misleading statements of the medical witnesses and offi- 
 cial apologists for a huge imposture ? For here we have, 
 on one side, a popixlation which the official witnesses de- 
 clare to be as well vaccinated and revaccinated as it is 
 possible to make it, and which has all the protection that 
 can be given by vaccination. It is a population which, 
 we are officially assured, can live in the midst of the con- 
 tagion of severe small-pox and not suffer from the dis- 
 ease " in any appreciable degree." And on comparing 
 this population of over 200,000 men, thus thoroughly 
 protected and medically cared for, with the poorest and 
 least cared for portion of our country — a portion which 
 the official witness regarding it declared to be hadly vac- 
 cinated, while no amount of revaccination was even re- 
 ferred to — we find the less vaccinated and less cared for 
 community to have actually a much lower small-pox 
 mortality than the Navy, and the same as that of the two 
 forces combined. The only possible objections that can 
 be taken, or that were suggested during the examination 
 of the witnesses are, that during the early portion of the 
 period, the ISTavy was not ivholly and ahsolidely revacci- 
 nated; and secondly, that troops abroad, and especially 
 in India and Egypt, are more frequently subjected to 
 
 cent., than the mean above given; and in the case of the Army for 
 the same years, about one percent, more. For Ireland the calcula- 
 tion has been accurately made by means of the yearly populations 
 given at p. 37 of the " Pinal Report," but for the Army and Navy, 
 materials for tlie whole period included in the diagrams are not avail- 
 able in any of the Reports. 
 
CHA1..X7III. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 885 
 
 infection. As to the first objection, even if revaccina- 
 tion were not absolutely universal in the Navy prior to 
 1873, it was certainly very laj-gely practised, and should 
 have produced a great difference when compared with 
 Ireland. And the second objection is simply childish. 
 For what are vaccination and revaccination for, except 
 to protect from infection? And under exposure to the 
 most intense infection they have been officially declared 
 " not appreciably to suffer " ! 
 
 But let us make one more comparison comprising the 
 period since the great epidemic of 187l--'72, during 
 which the ISTavy as well as the Anny are admitted to 
 have been completely revaccinated, both English and 
 foreign. We will compare this (supposed) completely 
 protected force with Leicester, an English manufactur- 
 ing town of nearly the same population, by no means 
 especially healthy, and which has so neglected vaccina- 
 tion that it may now claim to be the least vaccinated 
 town in the kingdom. The average annual small-pox 
 death-rate of this town for the twenty-two years 1873- 
 94 inclusive is 13 per million (see 4th Eeport, p. 
 440) ; but in order to compare with our Army and Navy 
 we must add one-ninth for the mortality at ages 1.5-45 
 as compared with total mortality, according to the table 
 at p. 155 of the " Final Eeport," bringing it to 14.4 per 
 million, when the comparison will stand as follows: 
 
 Pbr Million. 
 
 Army (1873-94) small-pox death rate 37 ' 
 
 Navy " " " 36.8 
 
 Leicester " " ages 15-45, .... 14.4 
 
 ' The figures for the Army are obtained from the Second Report, 
 p. S78, down to 1888, the remaining six years being obtained from 
 the "Final Report," pp. 86, 87; but this small addition has involved a 
 
286 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvm. 
 
 It is thus completely demonstrated that all the state- 
 ments by which the public has been gulled for so many 
 years, as to the almost complete immunity of the revacci- 
 nated Army and Navy, are absolutely false. It is all 
 what Americans call " bluff." There is no immunity. 
 They have no protection. When exposed to infection, 
 they do suffer just as much as other populations, or even 
 more. In the whole of the nineteen years 1878-96, 
 inclusive, unvaccinated Leicester had so few small-pox 
 deaths that the Registrar-General represents the average 
 by the decimal 0.01 per thousand population, equal to 
 ten per million, while for the twelve years 1878-89 
 there was less than one death per annum! Here we 
 have real immunity, real protection; and it is obtained 
 by attending to sanitation and isolation, coupled with the 
 almost total neglect of vaccination. Neither Anny nor 
 Navy can show any such results as this. In the whole 
 twenty-nine years tabulated in the Second Report the 
 Army had not one year without a small-pox death, while 
 the Navy never had more than three consecutive years 
 without a death, and only six years in the whole period. 
 
 Now if ever there exists such a thing as a crucial test, 
 this of the Army and Navy, as compared with Ireland, 
 and especially with i.,eicester, affords such a test. The 
 populations concerned are hundreds of thousands; the 
 time extends to a generation; the statistical facts are 
 clear and indisputable; while the case of the Army has 
 been falsely alleged again and again to afford indisputa- 
 
 large amount of calculation, because the Commissioners have given 
 the death rates per 10,000 strengtli of four separate forces — Home, 
 Colonial, Indian, and Egyptian — and have not given the figures for 
 the whole Army, so as to complete tlie table in the Second Report. 
 The figures for the Navy are obtained from the " Final Report," p. 88. 
 
CHAP. xvtn. VACCnSTATION A DELUSION. 287 
 
 ble proof of the value of vaccination when performed on 
 adults. It is important, therefore, to see how the Com- 
 missioners deal with these conclusive test-cases. They 
 were appointed to discover the truth and to enlighten the 
 public and the legislature, not merely to bring together 
 huge masses of undigested facts. 
 
 What they do is, to make no comparison whatever 
 with any other fairly comparable populations; to show 
 no perception of the crucial test they have to deal with; 
 but to give the Army and Navy statistics separately, and 
 as regards the Army piecemeal, and to make a few in- 
 credibly weak and unenlightening remarks. Thus, in 
 par. 333, they say that, during the later years, as the 
 whole force became more completely revaccinated, small- 
 pox mortality declined. But they knew well that during 
 the same period it declined over all England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland, with no special revaccination, and most of 
 all in un vaccinated Leicester! Then with regard to the 
 heavy small-pox mortality of the wholly revaccinated 
 and protected troops in Egypt, they say, " We are not 
 aware what is the explanation of this." And this is ab- 
 solutely all they say about it! But they give a long 
 paragraph to the Post Office officials, and make a great 
 deal of their alleged immunity. But in this case the 
 numbers are smaller, the periods are less, and no statistics 
 whatever are furnished except for the last four years! 
 All the rest is an extract from a parliamentary speech 
 by Sir Charles Dilke in 1883, stating some facts, fur- 
 nished of course by the medical officers of the Post 
 Office, and therefore not to be accepted as evidence.' 
 
 ' Neither Sir C. Dilke nor the Post OfBce medical officers of the 
 period referred to gave evidence before tlie Commission, and it 
 
288 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. snir. 
 
 This slurring over the damning evidence of the absolute 
 inutility of tlie most thorough vaccination possible, 
 afforded by the Army and Navy, is sufficient of itself to 
 condemn the whole " Final Report " of the majority of 
 the Commissioners. It proves that they were either 
 unable or unwilling to analyze carefully the vast mass 
 of evidence brought before them, to separate mere be- 
 liefs and opinions from facts, and to discriminate be- 
 tween the statistics which represented those great 
 " masses of national experience " to which Sir John 
 Simon himself has appealed for a final verdict, and those 
 of a more partial kind, which may be vitiated by the 
 prepossessions of those who registered the facts. That 
 they have not done this, but without any careful exami- 
 nation or comparison have declared that revaccinated 
 communities have " e.xceptioual advantages " which, as 
 a matter of fact, the Report itself shows they have not, 
 utterly discredits all their conclusions, and renders this 
 " Final Report " not only valueless but misleading. 
 
 V. 
 
 CRITICAL REMARKS ON THE " FINAL REPORT." 
 
 Before proceeding to sum up the broad statistical case 
 against vaccination, it may be well here to point out 
 some of the misconceptions, erroneous statements, vague 
 opinions, and conclusions which are opposed to the evi- 
 dence, which abound in this feeble Report. 
 
 And first, we have the repetition of an oft-corrected 
 
 and obviously erroneous statement as to the absolute 
 
 shows to what lengths the Commissioners would go to support vac- 
 cination when such unverified verbal statements are accepted in their 
 "Final Report." 
 
CHAP. xTiii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 389 
 
 identity of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, except 
 on the one point of vaccination. The Commissioners 
 say: " Those, therefore, who ai'e selected as being vac- 
 cinated persons might just as well be so many persons 
 chosen at random out of the total number attacked. So 
 far as any connection with the incidence of, or the mor- 
 tality from, small-pox is concerned, the choice of persons 
 might as well have been made according to the color of 
 the clothes they wore" ("Final Report," par. 213). But 
 there are tables in the Reports showing that about one- 
 seventh of all small-pox deaths occur in the first six 
 months of life, and by far the larger part of this mor- 
 tality occurs in the first three months. The age of vac- 
 cination varies actvially from three to twelve months, 
 and many children have their vaccination specially de- 
 layed on account of ill-health, so that the " unvacci- 
 nated " always include a large proportion of those who, 
 merely because they are infants, supply a much larger 
 proportion of deaths from small-pox than at any other 
 age. Yet the Commissioners say the unvaccinated 
 might as well be chosen at random, or by the color of 
 their clothes so far as any liability to small-pox is con- 
 cerned. One stands amazed at the hardihood of a re- 
 sponsible body of presumably sensible and truth-seeking 
 men who can deliberately record as a fact what is so ob- 
 viously untrue. 
 
 Hardly less important is it that the bulk of the unvac- 
 cinated, those who escape the vaccination officers, are the 
 very poor, and the nomad population of the country — 
 tramps, beggars, and criminals, the occupants of the 
 tenement-houses and slums of our great cities, who, 
 being all weekly tenants, are continually changing their 
 
390 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. cbap. xvin. 
 
 residence. Such were referred to, in the Report of the 
 Local Government Board for 1882 (p. 309), as constitut- 
 ing the bulk of the thirty-five thousand of defaults, 
 under the heading — " Removed, not to be traced, or 
 otherwise accounted for." 
 
 One of the Commission's official witnesses, Dr. Mac- 
 Cabe, Medical Commissioner for Ireland, distinctly 
 affirms this. He says (2d Rejiort, Q. 3073) that he for- 
 merly had charge of the Dublin district, and that " out 
 of a population of a quarter of a million, 100,000 live in 
 tenement-houses, that is to say, houses that are let out in 
 single rooms for the accommodation of a family. It is 
 amongst that class, to a very great extent, that the de- 
 faulters exist. The relieving officer, when he goes to the 
 tenement-dwelling where the birth occurred, finds that 
 the parents have gone to some other tenement-dwelling 
 and there is no trace of them. . . A great number of 
 these defaults occur in this way." 
 
 jSTow weekly tenants do not live in the best and most 
 sanitary parts of towns, and the records of every epi- 
 demic show that such insanitaiy districts have an enor- 
 mously greater proportion of the small-pox deaths than 
 the healthier districts. Yet the Commissioners declare 
 that there is " absolutely no difference between the vac- 
 cinated and the unvaccinated " except in respect of vac- 
 cination. Again we stand amazed at a statement so 
 contrary to the fact. But the Commissioners must of 
 course have believed it to be true, or they would not put 
 it in their " Final Report," upon which legislation may 
 be founded affecting the liberties and the lives of their 
 fellow-countrymen. 
 
 I submit to my readers with confidence that this state- 
 
CHAP. xYiii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 291 
 
 ment, so directly opposed to the clearest and simplest 
 facts and to the evidence of official witnesses, proves the 
 incapacity of the Commissioners for the important en- 
 quiry they have undertaken. By their treatment of this 
 part of the subject they exhibit themselves as either 
 ignorant or careless, in either case as thoroughly in- 
 competent. 
 
 The next passage that calls for special notice here is 
 par. 342, where they say, " We find that particular 
 classes within the community, amongst whom revaccina- 
 tion has prevailed to an exceptional degree, have 
 exhibited a position of quite exceptional advantage in 
 relation to small-pox, although these classes have in 
 many cases been subject to exceptional risk of con- 
 tagion." It seems almost incredible that such a state- 
 ment as this could be made as a conclusion from the 
 official evidence before the Commissioners, and it can 
 only be explained by the fact that they never made the 
 simplest and most obvious comparisons, and that they 
 laid more stress on bad statistics than on good ones. 
 They trust, for example, to the cases of nurses in hos- 
 pitals,^ as to which there are absolutely no statistics in 
 
 ' As regards the case of the nurses in small-pox hospitals, about 
 which so much lia* been said, I brought before the Commission 
 some evidence from a medical work, which sufficiently disposes of 
 this part of the question. In Buck's " Treatise on Hygiene and the 
 Public Health," vol. ii., we find an article by Drs. Hamilton and 
 Emmett on " Small-pox and other Contagious Diseases," and on page 
 331 thereof we read : 
 
 " It is a fact fully appreciated by medical men that peisons con- 
 stantly exposed to small-pox very rarely contract the di.sease. In the 
 case of physicians, health-inspectors, nurses, sisters of charily, 
 hospital orderlies, and some others, this is the rule ; and of over one 
 hundred persons who have been to my knowledge constantly exposed, 
 
293 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xvm 
 
 the proper sense of the term, only verbal statements by- 
 various medical men; and they overlook or forget the 
 largest and only trustworthy body of statistics existing, 
 as to revaccination — that of the Army and Navy! " A 
 position of quite exceptional advantage ! ! " When the 
 small-pox mortality of more than 200,000 men, all re- 
 vaccinated to the completest extent possible by the medi- 
 cal officials, shows no advantage whalever over the whole 
 coniparal)le population of Ireland, and a quite excep- 
 tional disadvantage in comparison with almost unvacci- 
 nated Leicester! ' There is only one charitable expla- 
 
 some of tliem seeing fis many as one thousand cases, I liave never 
 personally known of more than one who has contracted the disease ; 
 but there are many writers who believe perfect immunity to be 
 extremely rare. In this connection attention may be called to the 
 exemption of certain persons who occupy the same room, and per- 
 haps bed, with the patients, and though sometimes never vaccinated, 
 altogether escape infection." 
 
 And Mr. 'Wheeler shows that at Sheffield the hospital staff rfz'rf suffer 
 from small-pox in a higher degree thau other comparable popula- 
 tions (see Clh Report, Q. 19,907.) 
 
 ' It is a common practice of vaccinists to quote the German Army 
 as a striking proof of the good effects of revaccination ; but as our 
 own Army is as well vaccinated as the Army surgeons with unlimited 
 power can make it, it is unlikely that the Germans can do so very 
 much better. And there is some reason to tliink that their statistics 
 are less reliable than our own. Lieut. -Col A. T. Wintle, (late)R. A., 
 has published in the Vaccinntion Inquirer ejrtracts from a letter 
 from Germany stating, on tlie authority of a German officer, that the 
 Army statistics of small-pox are utterly unreliable. It is said to be 
 the rule for Army surgeons to enter sraall-pox cases as skin-disease 
 or some other " appropriate illness," while large numbers of small- 
 pox deaths are entered as "sent away elsewhere.'' We had better 
 therefore be content with our own Army and Navy statistics, though 
 even here there is some concealment. In 1860 Mr. Duncombe, M. P., 
 moved for a return of the disaster at Shorncliffe Camp, where, it was 
 alleged, thirty recruits were vaccinated, and six died of the results, 
 but the return was refused. A letter in the Lancet of July 7, 1860, 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 393 
 
 nation of such a " finding " as this — namely, that the 
 Commissioners were by education and experience wholly 
 incompetent to deal intelligently with those great masses 
 of national statistics which alone can furnish conclusive 
 evidence on this question. 
 
 At the end of the main enquiry, as to the effect of vac- 
 cination on small-pox (pp. 98, 99), the Commissionei-s 
 adopt a very hesitating tone. They say that — " where 
 vaccination has been most thorough the protection ap- 
 pears to have been greatest," and that " the revaccina- 
 tion of adults appears to place them in so favorable a 
 condition as compared vnth. the unvaccinated." But 
 why say " appeare " in both these cases? It is a ques- 
 tion of fact, founded on ample statistics which show us 
 clearly and unmistakably — as in comparing Leicester 
 with other towns — that vaccination gives no protection 
 whatever, and that the best and most thorough revacci- 
 nation, as in the Army and iSJ^avy, does not protect at all! 
 It is no question of " appearing " to protect. As a fact, 
 it does not protect, and does not appear to do so. The 
 only explanation of the use of this Avord " appears " is 
 that the Commissioners have founded their conclusions, 
 
 from a " Military Surgeon " staled that numbers of soldiers have lind 
 their arms amputated in consequence of mortification after vaccina- 
 tion ; and a Baptist minister and ex-soldier, the Rev. Frederick J. 
 Harsant, gave evidence before the Commission of another Shorncliffe 
 disaster in 1868, he himself, then a soldier, having never recovered, 
 and having had unhealed sores on various parts of his body for more 
 than twenty years. Eighteen out of the twenty men vaccinated at 
 the same time suffered ; some were months in hospital and in a much 
 worse condition than himself (6th Report; p. 207). In the same 
 volume is the evidence of twenty medical men, all of wliom have 
 witnessed serious effects produced by vaccination, some being of a 
 most terrible and distressing character. 
 
394 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 not upon the statistical evidence at all, but upon the 
 impressions and beliefs of the various medical officials 
 they examined, who almost all assumed the protection 
 as an already established fact. Such was the case of the, 
 army-surgeon who declared that the deaths were much 
 fewer than they would have been without revaccination ; 
 and Avho, on being asked why he believed so, answered 
 that it was from reading of the small-pox mortality in 
 pre-vaccination times! He had made no comparisons, 
 and had no figures to adduce. It was his opinion, and 
 that of the other medical oflicers, that it was so. And 
 the Commissioners apparently had always held the same 
 opinions, which, being confirmed by the opinions of 
 other ofilcial witnesses, they concluded that comparisons 
 of the revaccinated Army and Navy with ordinary 
 death-rates were as unnecessary as they would certainly 
 have been puzzling to them. Hence " appears " in place 
 of " is " or " does "; and their seven conclusions as to the 
 value and protectiveness of vaccination all under the 
 heading — " We think," not " We are convinced," or " It 
 ha.s been proved to us," or " The statistics of the Army 
 and Navy, of Ireland, of Leicester and of many other 
 places, demonstrate the [" protectiveness " or " inu- 
 tility " — as the case may be] of vaccination." I trust 
 that I have now convinced my readers that the best evi- 
 dence — the evidence to which Sir John Simon and Dr. 
 Guy have appealed — demonstrates complete inutility, 
 as against what " appears " to the Commissioners and 
 what they " think." 
 
 One other matter must be referred to before taking 
 leave of the Commissioners. I have already shown how 
 completely they ignore the elaborate and valuable evi- 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 296 
 
 dence, statistical tables and diagrams, furnished by those 
 who oppose vaccinations, snch as were brought before 
 them by Mr. Biggs of Leicester, Mr. A. Wheeler, and 
 Mr. William Tebb, who, though all were examined and 
 cross-examined on the minutest details, might as well 
 never have appeared so far as any notice in the " Final 
 Report " is concerned. But there is also a very elabo- 
 rate paper contributed by Dr. Adolf Vogt, Professor of 
 Hygiene and Sanitary Statistics in the University of 
 Berne, who offered to come to London and submit to 
 cross-examination upon it, which, however, the Commis- 
 sion did not consider necessary. This paper, a transla- 
 tion of which is printed in the Appendix to the 6th 
 Report, p. 689, is especially vahiable as the work of a 
 thorough statistician, who, from his position, has access 
 to the whole body of European official statistics, and his 
 discussion goes to the very root of the whole question. 
 The treatise is divided into nine chapters, and occupies 
 thirty-four closely printed pages of the Blue Book; but, 
 being an elaborate argument founded mainly on a scien- 
 tific treatment of statistics, there was probably no mem- 
 ber of the Commission capable of adequately dealing 
 with it. Yet it is of more value than fully nine-tenths 
 of the remainder of the voluminous reports, with their 
 31,398 questions and answers. Professor Vogt's treatise 
 covers almost the whole ground, medical and statistical, 
 and enforces many of the facts and arguments I have 
 myself adduced. But there are two points which must 
 be especially mentioned. His first chapter is headed — 
 " A Previous Attack of Small-pox does not Confer 
 Immunity." I have long been of opinion that this was 
 th? case, and have by me a brief statement, written six 
 
296 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xviii. 
 
 years since, to show that the rarity of second attacks 
 may, in all probability, be fully explained by the doc- 
 trine of chances. But I had not statistics sufficient to 
 prove this. Professor Vogt, however, having the sta- 
 tistical tables of all Europe at his command, is able to 
 show, not only that the calculus of probabilities itself 
 explains the rarity of a second attack of .small-pox, but 
 that second attacks occur more frequently than they 
 should do on the doctrine of chances alone, indicating 
 that, instead of there being any immunity, there is really 
 a somewhat increased susceptibility to a second attack!^ 
 
 ' Brief statement of the argument : 
 
 The chances of a person liaving small-pox a second time may be 
 roughly estimated thus ; Suppose the average annual death-rate by 
 small-pox to be .500 per million, and the average duration of life 
 forty years. Then the proportion of the po]iuIation that die of 
 small-pox will be 500 X 40 = 20.000 per uiilliou. If the proportion 
 of deaths to cases is one to five, there will be 100,000 cases of small- 
 pox per million during the life of that million, so that one-tenth of 
 the whole population will have small-pox once during their lives. 
 
 Now, according to the law of probabilities alone, the chances of a 
 person having smallpox twice will be the square of this fraction, or 
 one hundredth: so that on the average only one person in 100 
 would have small-pox twice if it were a matter of ptire chance, and if 
 nothing interfered with that chance. But there are interferences 
 which modify the result. (1) Those that die of the first attack can- 
 not possibly have it a second time. (3) It is most frequent in the very 
 young, so that the chances of having it later in life are not equal. 
 (3) If- is an especially epidemic disease, only occurring at considerable 
 intervals, which reduces the chances of infection to those who have 
 had it once. (4) It is probable that most persons are only liable to 
 infection at certain periods of life, having passed which without 
 infection may never take the disease. It seems probable, therefore, 
 that these several conditions would greatly diminish the chances in 
 the case of any person who had once had small-pox, so that perhaps, 
 under the actual state of things, chance alone would only lead to one 
 person in two hundred having the disease a second time. 
 
 The above is only an illustration of the principle. Professor Vogt 
 
CHAP. XVIII, VACCINATION A DELUSION. 297 
 
 This being the case, it becomes really ludicrous to read 
 the questions and answers, and the serious discussions, 
 as to whether a " good vaccination " protects more or less 
 than a previous attack of small-pox. Some think the 
 protection is the same, but the greater number think it 
 is not quite so much. Even the most ardent vaccinists 
 do not claim a greater protection. But none of them 
 ever doubt the fact of the protection gained by having 
 had the disease, and yet none of them, nor any of the 
 Commissioners, thought tlmt any evidence, much less 
 proof, of the fact itself was needed. They took it for 
 granted. " Everybody knows it." " Very few people 
 have small-pox a second time." ISTo doubt. But very- 
 few people suifer from any special accident twice — a 
 shipwreck, or railway or coach accident, or a house on 
 
 goes more fully into the question, and arrives at the conclusion that 
 out of every 1000 cases of small-pox the probability is that ten will be 
 second attacks. Then by getting together all the European observa- 
 tions as to the actual number of second attacks during various 
 epidemics, the average is found to amount to sixteen in 1000 
 cases, showing a considerable surplus beyond the number due to 
 probability. Further, the proportion of deaths to attacks has from 
 early times been observed to be high for second attacks ; and it has 
 also been observed by many eminent physicians whose statements are 
 given, that second attacks are more common in the case of persons 
 whose first attacks were very severe, which is exactly the reverse of 
 what we should expect if the first attack really conferred any degree 
 of immunity. 
 
 Now the whole theory of protection by vaccination rests upon the 
 assumption that a previous attack of the disease is a protection ; and 
 Professor Vogt concludes his very interesting discussion by the 
 remark: "All this justifies our maintaining that the theory of 
 immunity by a previous attack of small-pox, whether the natural dis- 
 ease or produced artificially, must be relegated to the realm of Action." 
 If this be the case, the supposed -probability or reasonableness of an 
 analogous disease, vaccinia, producing immunity wholly vanishes. 
 
298 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chip. xtih. 
 
 fire; yet one of these accidents does not confer immunity 
 against its happening a second time. The taking it for 
 granted that second attacks of small-pox, or of any other 
 zymotic disease, are of that degree of rarity as to prove 
 some immunity or protection, indicates the incapacity of 
 the medical mind for dealing with what is a purely statis- 
 tical and mathematical question. 
 
 Quite in accordance with this influence of small-pox 
 in rendering the patient somewhat more liable to catch 
 the disease during any future epidemic is the body of 
 evidence adduced by Professor Vogt, showing that vac- 
 cination, especially when repeated once or several times, 
 renders the persons so vaccinated more liable to take the 
 disease, and thus actually increases the virulence of 
 epidemics. This has been suspected by some anti- 
 vaccinatoi's ; but it is, I believe, now for the first time 
 supported by a considerable body of statistics. 
 
 The other important feature in Professor Vogt's 
 memoir is the strong support he gives to the view that 
 small-pox mortality is really — other things being ap- 
 proximately equal — a function of density of population. 
 All the evidence I have adduced goes to show this, espe- 
 cially the enormously high small-pox death-rate in 
 crowded cities in approximate proportion to the amount 
 of crowding. Professor Vogt adds some remarkable 
 statistics illustrating this point, especially a table in 
 which the 627 registration districts of England and 
 Wales are grouped according to their density of popu- 
 lation, from one district having only sixty-four per- 
 sons to a square mile to six which have 20,698 per square 
 mile; another column showing in how many of the years 
 during the period 1859-82 there were any small-pox 
 
cBAP.xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 299 
 
 deaths in the districts. The result shown is very re- 
 markable. In the most thinly populated district no 
 small-pox death occurred in any one of the twenty-four 
 years; in the most densely peopled districts small-pox 
 deaths occurred in every one of the twenty-four years. 
 And the frequency of the occurrence of small-pox in all 
 the intervening groups of districts followed exactly the 
 density of the population. Taking two groups with 
 nearly the same population, the fourth group of 107 dis- 
 tricts, with a total population of 1,840,581, had small- 
 pox deaths in only five or six out of the twenty-four years 
 in any of them; while the thirteenth group of thirteen 
 districts, with a population of 1,908,838, had small-pox 
 deaths in twenty-three out of the twenty-four years. 
 Bvit the first group had a density of 160 to the square 
 mile, and the last had 8350 to the square mile. The 
 Commissioners dwell upon the alleged fact that neither 
 water-supply, nor drainage, nor contaminated food 
 produces small-pox, and urge that what is commonly 
 understood by sanitation has little effect upon it (par. 
 153). But what may be termed the fundamental prin- 
 ciple of sanitation is the avoidance of overcroivdingj and 
 this is shown, by an overwhelming body of evidence, in- 
 variably to influence small-pox mortality quite irrespect- 
 ive of vaccination.^ Yet the remarkable contribution 
 
 ' It is not alleged that overcrowding, per ae, is the direct came of 
 sraall-po.x, or of any other zymotic disease. It is, perhaps rather a 
 condition than a cause ; but under our present social economy it is so 
 universally associated with various causes of disease — impure air, bud 
 drainage, bad water supply, unhealthy situations, unwholesome 
 food, overwork, and filth of every description in houses, clothing, and 
 persons— that it affords the most general and convenient indication of 
 an unhealthy as opposed to a healthy mode of life ; and, while 
 
300 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. cBAr. xvm. 
 
 to the mass of evidence in tlie " Reports " which brings 
 out this fact most clearly receives no notice whatever 
 in the " Final Report." 
 
 VI. 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 As the diverse aspects of the problem which has been 
 discussed in the preceding pages are somewhat numerous 
 and complex, owing to the vast mass of irrelevant but 
 confusing matter with which it has been encumbered at 
 every step of its progress for nearly a century, a brief 
 summary of the main points here referred to, and a state- 
 ment of their bearing on the essential problem, will now 
 be given. 
 
 I have first shown the nature of the tests which 
 seemed to the early enquirers to establish the protective 
 influence of vaccination, and have given the facts which 
 the two greatest living specialists on the subject — Pro- 
 fessor Crookshank and Dr. Creighton — consider to prove 
 the fallacy or insufficiency of all the tests which were ap- 
 plied. This is followed by a statement of the abundant 
 evidence which, in the first ten years of the century, 
 already showed that A^accination had no protective power 
 (pp. 219--221). But the heads of the medical profession 
 had accepted the operation as of proved value, and the 
 legislature, on their recommendation, had voted its dis- 
 coverer £30,000 of public money, and had besides, in 
 1808, endowed a National Vaccine Establishment with 
 about £3000 a year. Reputations and vested interests 
 
 especially appljing to zymotic diseases, is also so generally prejudicial 
 to heal til as to produce a constant and very large efEect upon the total 
 mortality. 
 
CHiP.xvni. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 801 
 
 were henceforth at stake, and those who adduced evi- 
 dence of the faihire or the dangers of vaccination were 
 treated as fanatics, and have been so treated by the medi- 
 cal and official world down to the appointment of the last 
 Royal Commission. 
 
 I next give the reasons why doctors are not the best 
 judges of the effects, beneficial or otherwise, of vaccina- 
 tion, and follow this by proofs of a special capacity for 
 misstating facts in reference to this question which has 
 characterized them from the beginning of the century 
 down to our day. The successive annual reports of the 
 National Vaccine Establishment give figures of the 
 deaths by small-pox in London in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, which go on increasing like Falstaff's men in 
 buckram; while in our own time the late Dr. W. B. Car- 
 penter, Mr. Ernest Hart, the National Health Society, 
 and the Local Government Board make statements or 
 give figures which are absurdly and demonstrably incor- 
 rect (pp. 223-228).' 
 
 ' To the cases I have already given I may now add two others, 
 because they illustrate the recklessness in making assertions in favor 
 of vaccination which scorns the slightest attempt at veritication. In 
 the first edition of Mr. Ernest Hart's " Truth about Vaccination" p. 
 4), it is stated, on the authority of a member of Parliament recently 
 returned from Brazil, that during an epidemic of smallpox at the 
 town of Ceara in 1878 and 1879, out of a population not exceeding 
 70,000 persons there were 40,000 deatlis fiom small-pox. This 
 was repeated by Dr. Carpenter during a debate in London, in 
 February, 1883, and only when its accuracy was called in question 
 was it ascertained that at the time referred to the population of Cenra 
 was only about 30,000 ; yet the M. P. had stated— with detailed cir- 
 cumstance—that •' in one cemetery, from August, 1878, to June, 1879, 
 73,064 persons who had died of small-pox had been buried." 
 Gazetteers are not very recondite works, and it would have been not 
 difficult to test some portion of this monstrous statement before 
 printing it. Jenner's biographer tells us that he had a horror of 
 
802 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvin. 
 
 I then show the existence of so unreasoning a belief 
 in the importance of vaccination that it leads many of 
 those who have to deal with it officially to concealments 
 and misstatements which are justified by the desire to 
 " save vaccination from reproach." Thus it happened 
 that till 1881 no deaths were regularly recorded as due 
 to vaccination, although an increasing number of such 
 deaths now appear in the Registrar-General's Eeports; 
 
 arithmetical calculations, due to a natural incapacity, -which quality 
 appears to be a special characteristic of those who advocate vaccina- 
 tion, as the examples I have given sutflciently prove. 
 
 Another glaring case of official misrepresentation occurred in the 
 Royal Commission itself, but was fortunately exposed later on. A 
 medical officer of the Local Government Board gave evidence (First 
 Report, Q. 994) that the Board in 1886 "took some pains to get the 
 figures as to the steamship Prevssen," on which small-pox broke out 
 on its arrival in Australia. He made tlie following statements : (1) 
 There were 312 persons on board this vessel. (2) Four revaccinated, 
 47 vaccinated, 3 who had small-pox, and 15 unvacciuated were 
 attacked— 69 in all. (3) The case was adduced to show that 
 " sanitary circumstances have little or no control over smallpox 
 compared with the condition of vaccination or no vaccination.'' 
 
 This official statement was quoted in the House of Commons as 
 strikingly showing the value of vaccination. But, like so many 
 other offlcial statements, it was all wrong ! The reports of the Mel- 
 bourne and Sydney inspectors have been obtained, and it is found: 
 (1) That there were on board this ship 723 passengers and 180 
 crew — 843 in all, instead of 312 ; so that the "pains" taken by the 
 Local Government Board to get " the figures " were very ineffectual. 
 (3) There were 29 cases among the 235 passengers who disembarked 
 at Melbourne, of whom only 1 was unvacciuated. The crew had all 
 been revaccinated before starling, yet 14 of them were attacked, and 
 one died. All the.se in addition to the cases given by the Local 
 Government Board. Thus 18 revaccinated persons caught the dis- 
 ease, instead of 4, as tirst stated, and 69 vaccinated, instead of 48; 
 while among the 15 cases alleged to be unvacciuated three were 
 infants under one year old, and two more between five and ten years. 
 (3) The official reports from Melbourne and Sydney stated that the 
 vessel was greatly overcrowded, that the sanitary arrangements were 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 303 
 
 while a few medical men, who have personally inquired 
 into these results of vaccination, have found a large 
 amount of mortality directly following the operation, 
 together with a large percentage of subsequent disease, 
 often lasting for years or during life, which, except for 
 such private enquiries, would have remained altogether 
 unknown and unacknowledged (pp. 229--232).^ 
 
 very bad, and the inspector at Sydney declared the vessel to be the 
 " filthiest ship he had had to deal with"! (See " Final Report," pp. 
 205-6 : and Second Report, Q. 5942-5984.) 
 
 Here, then, we have a case in which all the o^ciaX figures, paraded 
 as being the result of " taking some pains," are wrong, not to 
 a trifling extent, bat so grossly that they might be supposed to apply 
 to some quite different ship. And the essential fact of the tiltliy, 
 overcrowded, and unsanitary condition of the ship was unknown or 
 concealed ; and the case was adduced as one showing how unimpor- 
 tant is sanitation as regards small-pox. What the case really proves 
 is that under unsanitary conditions neither vaccination nor revaccina- 
 tion has the slightest effect in preventing the spread of small-pox, 
 since the proportion of the cases among the revaccinated crew was 
 almost exactly the same as that of the whole of the cases (omitting 
 the three infants) to the whole population on the ship. 
 
 With this example of oflBcially quoted facts (!) in support of 
 vaccination, coming at the end of the long serie.? we have given or 
 referred to in the first part of this work, it is not too much to ask that 
 all such unverified statements be, once and for ever, ruled out of 
 court. 
 
 ' The Commissioners in their Majority Report (par. 379) suggest 
 that the deaths due to vaccination are small in proportion to the whole 
 number of vaccinations, and argue that it would be as unwise to 
 reject vaccination for this reason as to refuse to travel by railway on 
 account of the risk of accident. But they overlook the fact that rail- 
 way-travelling is not made compulsory ; and they make no com- 
 parison by figures, showing the proportionate risk in the two cases. 
 This comparison is, however, made in the Minority Report (par. 184), 
 and it is shown that the risk of death by vaccination, as officially 
 admitted, is, on the average of the nine years 1881-89, between three 
 and four thousand times greater than the risk of death by railway 
 travelling, while it is 622 times as great as in the very worst year of 
 
304 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xvii: 
 
 The same desire to do credit to the practice which 
 they beheve to be so important leads to such imperfect 
 or erroneous statements, as to the vaccinated or unvacci- 
 nated condition of those who die of small-pox, as to ren- 
 der all statistics of this kind faulty and erroneous to so 
 serious an extent that they must be altogether rejected. 
 Whether a person dies of small-pox or of some other ill- 
 ness is a fact that is recorded with tolerable accuracy, 
 because the disease, in fatal cases, is among the most 
 easily recognized. Statistics of " small-pox mortality " 
 may, therefore, be accepted as reliable. But whether 
 tlie patient is registered as vaccinated or not vaccinated 
 usually depends on the visibility or non-visibility of vac- 
 cination-marks, either during the illness or after death, 
 botli of which observations are liable to eiTor, while the 
 latter entails a risk of infection which would justifiably 
 lead to its omission. And the admitted practice of many 
 doctors, to give vaccination the benefit of any doubt, en- 
 tirely vitiates all such statistics, except in those special 
 cases where large bodies of adults are systematically vac- 
 cinated or revaccinated. Hence, whenever the results 
 of these imperfect statistics are opposed to those of the 
 official records of small-pox mortality, the former must 
 be rejected. It is an absolute law of evidence, of statis- 
 tics, and of common sense that, when two kinds of evi- 
 dence contradict each other, that which can be proved 
 to be even partially incorrect or untrustworthy must be 
 
 railway accidents, 1889. Supposing railway accidents and resulting 
 deaths were 3000 times as numei ous as tliey are, should we be satis- 
 fled witli the railway-companies' assurance that it was really of no 
 importance as compared with the benefits of railways ! And the 
 actual deaths from vaccination are, certainly, much greater than the 
 officially admitted deaths used ia tlie above calculation. 
 
CHAP, xviii, VACCINATION A DELUSION. 305 
 
 rejected. It will be found that all the evidence that 
 seems to prove the value of vaccination is of this un- 
 trustworthy character. This conclusion is enforced by 
 the fact that the more recent hospital statistics show that 
 small-pox occurs among the vaccinated in about the same 
 proportion as the vaccinated bear to the whole popula- 
 tion; thus again indicating that the earlier figures, show- 
 ing that they were proportionately five or six times as 
 numerous, and the death-rate of the unvaccinated twice 
 or thrice that of the average of pre-vaccination days, are 
 altogether erroneous, and are due to the various kinds of 
 error or misstatement which have been pointed out 
 (pp. 229-232). 
 
 Having thus cleared away some of the misconceptions 
 and fallacies which have obscured the main question at 
 issue, and having shown that, by official admission, the 
 only valuable e-\ddence consists of " large masses of 
 national statistics," which should have been dealt with 
 by a commission of trained statisticians, I proceed to 
 show, by a series of diagrams embodying the ofHcial or 
 national statistics brought before the Commission, or to 
 be found in the Reports of the Registrar-General, what 
 such statistics really prove ; and I ask my readers to look 
 again at those diagrams as I refer to them. 
 
 Diagram I. exhibits the most extensive body of 
 national statistics available, showing at one view the 
 death-rates from Small-pox, from the other chief Zy- 
 motic Diseases, and the Total Mortality, from 1760 to 
 1896. The first portion, from 1760 to 1836, is from 
 the " Bills of Mortality," which, though not complete, 
 are admitted to be, on the whole, fairly accurate as re- 
 
306 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvin. 
 
 gards the variations at different periods and between dif- 
 ferent diseases. The second part, from 1838 onward, 
 is from the Reports of the Eegistrar-General, and is 
 more complete in giving all deaths whatever. Its lines 
 are, therefore, as it were, on a higher level than those of 
 the earlier period, and can only be compared with it as 
 regards proportions of the different mortalities, not so 
 accurately as to their total amounts. The main teaching 
 of this diagram — a teaching which the Commissioners 
 have altogether missed by never referring to diagrams 
 showing comparative mortalities — is the striking cor- 
 respondence in average rise and fall of the death-rates 
 of small-pox, of zymotics, and of all diseases together. 
 This correspondence is maintained throughout the whole 
 of the first part, as well as through the whole of the 
 second part, of the diagram; and it proves that small-pox 
 obeys, and always has obeyed, the same law of sub- 
 servience to general sanitary conditions as the other great 
 groups of allied diseases and the general mortality. 
 Looking at this most instructive diagram, we see at once 
 the absurdity of the claim that the dimunition of small- 
 pox in the first quarter of our century was due to the 
 partial and imperfect vaccination of that period. 
 Equally absurd is the allegation that its stationary char- 
 acter from 1842 to 1872, culminating in a huge epi- 
 demic, was due to the vaccination then prevailing, 
 though much larger than ever before, not being quite 
 imiversal — an allegation completely disproved by the 
 fact that the other zymotics as a whole, as well as the 
 general mortality, exhibited strikingly similar decreases 
 followed by eqixally marked periods of average uni- 
 formity or slight increase, to be again followed by a 
 
CHAP. xTiii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 307 
 
 marked decrease. There is here no indication whatever 
 of vaccination having produced the slightest effect on 
 small-pox mortality. 
 
 The second diagram shows that, even taking the Com- 
 mission's favorite method of comparing the zymotics 
 separately with small-pox, all of them except measles 
 show a similar or a greater decrease during the period 
 of official registration, and also agree in the periods of 
 slight increase, again proving the action of the same 
 general causes (which I have pointed out at p. 250), and 
 leaving no room whatever for the supposed effects of 
 vaccination. 
 
 Diagram III. shows that similar phenomena occurred 
 in England and Wales as a whole, the other zymotics 
 and the total deaths obeying the same laws of increase 
 and decrease as small-pox. Comparison with Diagram 
 I. shows the much greater severity of small-pox epi- 
 demics in London, illustrating the fact, which all the 
 statistical e\'idence of all countries strikingly enforces, 
 that small-pox mortality is, other things being equal, a 
 function of density of population, while it pays no regard 
 whatever to vaccination. This is further shown by the 
 short, thick dotted line which exhibits the total nimiber 
 of vaccinations since 1872, when private as well as pviblic 
 vaccinations were first officially recorded, and which 
 proves that the continuous decrease of vaccination since 
 1882 has been accompanied by a decided decrease, in- 
 stead of an increase, in small-pox mortality. 
 
 Diagram IV. shows the statistics of mortality in Ire- 
 land and Scotland from small-pox and- certain chosen 
 zymotics, from the tables which were laid before the 
 Commission by the official advocates of vaccination, 
 
308 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap xtiu. 
 
 These show two striking facts, which the Commissioners 
 failed to notice in their " Final Report." First, the 
 smaller amount of small-pox mortality in Ireland than 
 in Scotland, the latter being alleged to be well vacci- 
 nated, the former imperfectly so; and, secondly, the 
 similar difference in the two chosen diseases and the 
 general parallelism of the two. Here again we see 
 clearly the infliience of density of population, Scotland 
 having a very much larger proportion of its inhabitants 
 living in large manufacturing towns. 
 
 The next three diagrams — V., VI., and VII. — show 
 small-pox mortality in Sweden, Prussia, and Bavaria — 
 countries which at previous enquiries Avere adduced as 
 striking examples of the value of vaccination. They all 
 show phenomena of the same character as our own coun- 
 try, but far worse as regards epidemics in the cajiitals; 
 that of Stockholm, in 1874, causing a death-rate more 
 than 50 per cent, higher than during the worst epidemic 
 of the last century in London! The diagi'am of small- 
 pox and zymotics in Bavaria is given merely because the 
 statistics were brought before the Commission as a proof 
 of the beneficial results of vaccination in well-vaccinated 
 communities. It was alleged by Dr. Hopkirk that almost 
 the whole of the population were vaccinated, and ad- 
 mitted by him that of the 30,'742 cases of small-pox in 
 1871 no less than 95.7 per cent, were vaccinated! The 
 epidemic was, however, less severe than in Prussia, again 
 showing the influence of density of population — less than 
 one-seventh of the Bavarians inhabiting towns of over 
 20,000, while one-fourth inhabit similar towns in Prus- 
 sia; but we see that during the latter half of the period 
 chosen small-pox greatly increased, and the other zy- 
 
CHAP. XVIII. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 309 
 
 motics remained very high, indicating general insanitary 
 conditions. And this case was specially brought before 
 the Commission as a proof of the benefits of vaccination ! 
 In their " Final Report " the Commissioners omit to 
 point out that it really indicates the very reverse. 
 
 We then come to the two cases that afford most con- 
 clusive tests of the absolute uselessness of vaccination — 
 Leicester, and our Army and Navy. 
 
 Diagram VIII. shows the death-rates from small-pox 
 and from the other zymotics in Leicester during the 
 period of oificial registration, together with the percent- 
 age of vaccinations to births. Up to 1872 Leicester was 
 a fairly well-vaccinated town; yet for thirty-four years 
 its small-pox mortality, in periodical epidemics, remained 
 very high, corresponding generally with the other zy- 
 motics. But immediately after the great epidemic of 
 1872, which was much worse than in London, the people 
 began to reject vaccination, at first slowly, then more 
 rapidly, till for the last eight years less than 5 per cent, 
 of the births have been vaccinated. During the whole 
 of the last twenty-four years small-pox deaths have been 
 very few, and during twelve consecutive years, 1878-89, 
 there was a total of only eleven small-pox deaths in this 
 populous town. 
 
 Diagram IX. is equally important as showing a re- 
 markable correspondence, if not a causal relation, be- 
 tween vaccination and disease. From 1848 to 1862 
 there was a considerable decrease of both general and 
 infant mortality, and also in infant mortality from small- 
 pox. This, Mr. Biggs tells us, was when important 
 sanitary improvements were in progress. Then the 
 more thorough enforcement of vaccination set in (as 
 
310 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvm. 
 
 shown by the dotted line), and was accompanied by an 
 increase of all these mortalities. But, so soon as the re- 
 volt against vaccination began, till the present time when 
 it has diminished to about 2 or 3 per cent, of births, all 
 mortalities have steadily decreased, and that decrease has 
 been especially marked in infant lives. It is very sug- 
 gestive that the lines of infant mortality have now 
 reached the position they would have had if the slow de- 
 crease during 1S50-60 had been continued, strongly in- 
 dicating that some special cause sent them up, and the 
 removal of that cause allowed them to sink again; and 
 during that very period A^accination increased and then 
 steadily decreased. I venture to declare that in the 
 whole history of vaccination thei-e is no such clear and 
 satisfactory proof of its having saved a single life as 
 these Leicester statistics afford of its having been the 
 cause of death to many hundreds of infants. 
 
 Diagram X. exhibits the check to the decrease in in- 
 fant mortality, both in London and for England, since 
 the enforcement of vaccination (p. 257), and thus sup- 
 ]3orts and enforces the conclusions derived from the pre- 
 ceding diagram. 
 
 I next discuss in some detail Avhat is undoubtedly the 
 most complete and crucial test of the value or uselessness 
 of vaccination to be found anywhere in the world. 
 Since 1860 in the Army, and 1872 in the Navy, every 
 man without exception, English or foreign, has been vac- 
 cinated on entering the service, though for long before 
 that period practically the whole force was vaccinated or 
 revaccinated. Diagrams XT. and XTI. exhibit the re- 
 sult of the statistics presented to the Commission, show- 
 
cuAP.xviii. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 311 
 
 ing for the N'avy, the death-rate from disease and that 
 from small-pox for the whole force; and for the Army, 
 the death-rate from small-pox for the whole force, and 
 that from disease for the home force only, foreign deaths 
 from disease not being separately given. 
 
 Here we note, first, the general parallelism of the two 
 lines showing the diminishing total disease-mortality in 
 the two forces, resulting from the greater attention given 
 to sanitation and to general health conditions of both 
 forces during the last thirty or forty years. But, in- 
 stead of small-pox mortality, as shown by the two lower 
 lines of the diagram, absolutely vanishing with the com- 
 plete revaccination in the Army since 1860, it shows but 
 a small improvement as compared with general disease- 
 mortality; just as if some adverse cause were preventing 
 the improvement. In the jSTavy the improvement is 
 somewhat greater, and more nearly comparable with 
 that of general disease-mortality. There is, therefore, 
 as regards proportionate decrease, no indication what- 
 ever of any exceptional cause favorably influencing 
 small-pox. 
 
 In Diagram XII. I compare the small-pox mortality 
 of the Army and JSTavy with that of Ireland, from tables 
 given in the " Einal Report " and the Second Report ; 
 and we find that this whole country (at ages 15-45) has 
 actually a much lower small-pox mortality than the 
 Army, while it is a little more than in the ISTavy, al- 
 though the mortality during the great epidemic was 
 higher than any that affected the Army or Navy, owing 
 to its rapid spread by infection in the towns. But the 
 proportionate numbers dying of small-pox in a series of 
 years is, of course, the final and absolute test; and, apply- 
 
313 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap, xvin 
 
 ing this test, we find that these revaccinated sokiiers and 
 sailors have suffered in the thirty-one years during which 
 the materials for comparison exist, to almost exactly the 
 same extent as poor, half-starved, imperfectly vaccinated 
 Ireland (p. 282)! Another and still more striking com- 
 parison is given. The town of Leicester is, and has 
 been for the last twenty years, the least vaccinated town 
 in the kingdom. Its average population from 18Y3 to 
 1894 was about two-tliirds that of the Army during the 
 same period. Yet the small-pox deaths in the Army 
 and K^avy were thirty-seven per million, those of Leices- 
 ter under fifteen per million. 
 
 Thus, whether we compare the revaccinated and thor- 
 oughly " protected " Army and Navy with imperfectly 
 vaccinated Ireland, or with almost unvaccinated Leices- 
 ter, we find them either on a bare equality or worse off 
 as regards small-pox mortality. It is not possible to 
 have a more complete or crucial test than this is, and it 
 absolutely demonstrates the utter uselessness, or worse 
 than uselessness, of revaccination ! ^ 
 
 In the face of this clear and indisputable evidence, 
 all recorded in their own Reports, the Commissioners 
 make the astounding statement: " We find that particu- 
 lar classes within the community amongst whom revacci- 
 nation has prevailed to an exceptional degree have 
 exhibited a position of quite exceptional advantage in 
 relation to small-pox, although these classes have in 
 many cases been subject to exceptional risk of conta- 
 
 ' So late as 1892 (January 16) the iMiicet declared in a leading 
 article: " No one need die of small-pox; indeed, no one need have it 
 unless he likes — that is to say, he can be absolutely protected by vac- 
 cination once repeated." Surely, never before was misstatement so 
 ignorantly promulgated, or so completely refuted! 
 
CHAP, xvm, VACCINATION A DELUSION. 313 
 
 gion " (" Final Keport," p. 90, pai-. 342). And again: 
 " The fact that revaccination of adults appears to place 
 them in so favorable a condition as compared with the 
 unvaccinated," etc. (" Final Report," p. 98, par. 375). 
 What can be said of such statements as these, but simply 
 that they are wholly untrue? And the fact that the 
 majority of the Commissionei-s did not know this, be- 
 cause they never compared the different groups of facts 
 in their own Repoi-ts which prove them to be untrue, 
 demonstrates at once their complete incapacity to con- 
 duct such an inquiry and the utter worthlessness of their 
 " Final Report." 
 
 This is a matter upon which it is necessary to speak 
 plainly. For refusing to allow their children's health, 
 or even their lives, to be endangered by tho inoculation 
 into their system of disease-produced matter, miscalled 
 " lymph," ^ hundreds and probably thousands of Eng- 
 lish parents have been fined or imprisoned and treated 
 as criminals; while certainly thousands of infants have 
 been ofRcially done to death, and other thousands in- 
 jured for life. And all these horrors on account of what 
 Dr. Creighton has well termed a " grotesque supersti- 
 tion," which has never had a rational foundation either 
 of physiological doctrine or of carefully tested observa- 
 tions, and is now found to be disproved by a century's 
 dearly bought experience. This disgrace of our much- 
 vaunted scientific age has been throughout supported by 
 concealment of facts telling against it, by misrepresenta- 
 
 ' ' ' Lymph, a colorless nuti'itive fluid in animal bodies " (" Chambers' 
 Dictionary"). How misleading to apply this term to a product of 
 disease, used to produce another disease, and now admitted to be 
 capable of transmitting some of the most horrible diseases which 
 afllict manliind — syphilis and leprosy! 
 
314 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xvnr. 
 
 tion, and by untruths. And now a Koyal Commission, 
 which one would have supposed would have striven to be 
 rigidly impartial, has presented a Report which is not 
 only weak, misleading, and inadequate, but is also palp- 
 ably one-sided, in that it omits in every case to make 
 those comparisons by which alone the true meaning can 
 be ascertained of those " great masses of national experi- 
 ence " to which appeal has been made by the official 
 advocate of vaccination jjar excellence — Sir John Simon. 
 
 I venture to think that I have here so presented the 
 best of these statistical facts as to satisfy my readers of 
 the certain and absolute uselessness of vaccination as a 
 preventive of small-pox; while these same facts render it 
 in the highest degree probable that it has actually in- 
 creased susceptibility to the disease. The teaching of 
 the whole of the evidence is in one direction. Whether 
 we examine the long-continued records of London mor- 
 tality, or those of modern registration for England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland; whether we consider the "control 
 experiment " or crucial test afforded by unvaccinated 
 Leicester, or the still more rigid test in the other direc- 
 tion of the absolutely revaccinated Army and iNavy, the 
 conclusion is in every case the same: that vaccination is 
 a gigantic delusion; that it has never saved a single life; 
 but that it has been the cause of so much disease, so 
 many deaths, such a vast amount of utterly needless and 
 altogether undeserved suffering, that it will be classed 
 by the coming generation among the greatest errors of 
 an ignorant and prejudiced age, and its penal enforce- 
 ment the foulest blot on the generally beneficent course 
 of legislation during our century. 
 
cHAP.xvin. VACCINATION A DELUSION. 315 
 
 To talk of amending sncli legislation is a mockery. 
 Absolute and immediate abolition is the only rational 
 course open to us. Every day the vaccination la«'s re- 
 main in force, parents are being punished, infants are 
 being killed. An Act of a single clause will repeal these 
 vile laws; and I call upon every one of our legislators to 
 consider their responsibilities as the guardians of the 
 liberties of the English people, and to insist that this 
 repeal be effected without a day's unnecessary delay. 
 
 The successive Vaccination Acts were passed by 
 means of allegations which were whollj' untrue and 
 promises which have all been unfulfilled. They stand 
 alone in modern legislation as a gross interference Avith 
 personal liberty and the sanctity of the home; while as 
 an attempt to cheat outraged nature and to avoid a zy- 
 motic disease without getting rid of the foul conditions 
 that produce or propagate it, the practice of vaccination 
 is utterly opposed to the whole teaching of sanitary 
 science, and is one of those terrible blunders which, in 
 their far-reaching evil consequences, are worse than the 
 greatest of crimes. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE CAUSES OP THE IMPROVEMENT IN THE HEALTH OF LONDON 
 TOWARD THE END OP THE EIGHTEENTH AND BEGINNING OF 
 THE NINETEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
 Although, as I have shown, there is ample proof of the great im- 
 provement in the sanitary condition of London during the latter part 
 of the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth centuries in 
 the great and exceptional decrease of the general death-rate, and 
 especially in the infant death-rate, as pointed out by the late Dr. 
 Farr, it will be well to give a brief sketch of the various changes, not 
 only in London itself, but in the habits and especially in the food of 
 the people, which combined to bring it about. 
 
 In the early part of the eighteenth century London was in a condi- 
 tion of overcrowding and general filth which we can now hardly 
 realize. The houses were low and overhung the streets, and almost 
 all had cesspools close behind or underneath them. The streets were 
 narrow, the main thoroughfares only being paved with cobblestones, 
 which collected filth, and allowed it to soak into the ground beneath 
 till the soil and subsoil became saturated. Slops and refuse of all 
 kinds were thrown into the streets at night, and only the larger 
 streets were ever cleaned. The bystreets and the roads outside 
 London were so bad that vehicles could only go two or three miles 
 an hour; while even between London and Kensington coaches some- 
 times stuck in the mud or had to turn back and give up the journey. 
 The writers of the time describe the streets as dangerous and often 
 impassable, while only in the main thoroughfare were there any foot- 
 ways, which were separated from the narrow roadway by rows of 
 posts. Gay, in his " Trivia," speaks of the slops thrown from the 
 overhanging windows, and the frequent dangers of the night, 
 adding: 
 
 " Though expedition bids, yet never stray 
 Where no rang'd posts defend the rugged way." 
 
 And throughout this poem, dirt, mire, mud, slime, are continually 
 referred to as being the chief characteristics of the streets. They 
 mostly had a gutter on each side, and with few exceptions rain alone 
 
 316 
 
LONDON SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS. 317 
 
 prevented them being blocked with refuse. The effects of a heavy 
 shower in the city are forcibly described by Swift in his usual plain 
 language: 
 
 " Now from all parts the swelling kennels flow, 
 And bear their trophies with them as they go; 
 Filths of all hues and odors seem to tell 
 What street they sailed from by their eight and smell. 
 
 " Sweepings from the butchers' stalls, drugs, guts, and blood, 
 Drown'd puppies, stinking sprats, all drench'd in mud, 
 Dead cats, and turnip tops, come tumbling down the flood." 
 
 Macaulay tells us that down to 1726 St. James' Square, though sur- 
 rounded by houses of the nobility, was a common receptacle for 
 refuse of all kinds, and that it required an Act of Parliament to stop 
 its being so used. Hogs were kept in St. George's, Hanover Square, 
 and in 1760 many were seized as a common nuisance. 
 
 The numerous small streams which flowed through London from 
 the northern heights— Langbourne, Wallbrook, Fleet, Tybourne, and 
 Westbourne — which were in earlier times a source of health and 
 water supply, gradually became noisome open sewers, and one after 
 another were arched over. There were many wells in London, indi- 
 cated by such names as Holywell, Clerkenwell, and Aldgate Pump, 
 and there were also conduits in Cheapside and Cornhill ; but it is cer- 
 tain that, from the filthy streets and house cesspools, all the water 
 derived from them must have been contaminated, and thus helped to 
 produce the terrible mortality from plague and fevers of the seven- 
 teenth century. It has been often suggested that the Great Fire of 
 London in 1666 was the cause of the final disappearance of the 
 plague, but how, except that the new houses were for once clean 
 and wholesome, has not, I think, been satisfactorily explained. I 
 believe, however, that it can be found in the action of the fire upon 
 the soil, which for more than a thousand years had been continu- 
 ously saturated with filth, and must, as we now know, have afforded 
 a nidus for every kind of disease germs. The long-continued fire 
 not only destroyed the closely-packed houses, but in doing so must 
 have actually burnt the whole soil to a considerable depth, and thus 
 have destroyed not only the living germs, but all the organic matter 
 in it. The new city, for the first time in many centuries, had beneath 
 it a dry and wholesome soil, which to this day has not had time to 
 get so foully polluted as before the fire. 
 
 When we come to consider how tlie people lived, the conditions 
 were equally bad. The houses were often sunk below the level of 
 
318 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 the ground, and had very low rooms, as indicated by Gay'a lines on 
 
 the Strand; 
 
 " Where the low penthouse bows the wnlker'e head, 
 And the rough pavement wounds the yielding tread." 
 
 Light and air were shut out by the overhanging of each successive 
 floor, and by enormous signboards projecting over the street; while 
 any effective ventilation was out of the question, and, indeed, was 
 never tliought of. Water had usually to be brought from the public 
 wells or conduits, and was used sparingly; and most business people 
 lived for whole days and weeks without ever leaving the polluted air 
 of their shops and houses. A friend of Mr. Williaiu White told him 
 that he served his apprenticeship to a grocer in Cheapside from 1786 
 to 1793; that the shop was opened at seven in the morning and closed 
 at ten at night; that he slept under the counter; that his ablutions 
 were limited to his face and hands, and that he never went out 
 except to meeting on Sunday. Bishop Wilson of Calcutta was in a 
 silk merchant's shop about the same time, and worked similar hours. 
 He records that the apprentices rarely left the house for weeka 
 together, and that it was three years before he had his first holiday. 
 William Cobbett, in 1783, was in u Lawyer's office in Gray's Inn. 
 where, he relates, " I worked like a gallej^ slave from five in the 
 morning till eight or nine at night, and sometimes all night long. I 
 never quitted tliis gloomy recess except on Sundays, when I usually 
 took a walk to St. James' Park." ' 
 
 When we remember the filthy condition of the streets, and that, 
 owing to the cesspools either under or close behind the houses, the 
 scarcity of water, and the absence of ventilation, the shops and living 
 rooms were always full of foul air, bad smells, and poisonous gases, 
 how can we wonder at the prevalence of zymotic disease and the 
 dreadful amount of infant and general mortality? And in many 
 houses there was an additional peril in the vicinity of churchyards. 
 In Nicoll's " Illustrations of Literary History " (vol. iv. p. 499), Mr. 
 Samuel Gale is quoted as writing, in 1736, as follows: 
 
 " In the churchyard of St. Paul, Covent Garden, the burials are 
 so frequent that the place is not capacious enough to contain de- 
 cently the crowds of dead, some of whom are not laid above a foot 
 under the loose earth. The cemetery is surrounded every way with 
 close buildings; and an acquaintance of mine, whose apartments look 
 into the churchyard, hath averred to me that the family have often 
 rose in the night lime and been forced to burn frankincense and 
 
 > White's " Story of a great Delusion," p. SI. 
 
LONDON SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS. 319 
 
 other perfumes to dissipate and break the contagions vapor. This is 
 an instance of the danger of infection proceeding from the corrupt 
 effluvia of dead bodies." 
 
 Many illnesses tlieu originated in churches, and even those whose 
 houses were exceptionally wholesome were often exposed to a danger- 
 ous atmosphere when they went to church on Sundays. 
 
 The general food of the poor and the middle classes added greatly 
 to tlieir unhenUhiness, and itself caused disease. Owing to the 
 absence of good roads, it was impossible to supply the large popula- 
 tion of London with fresh food tliroughout the year, and, conse- 
 quently, salt meat and salt fish formed the staple diet during the 
 winter. For the same reason fresh vegetables were unattainable; so 
 that meat, cheese, and bread, with beer as the common drink at all 
 meals, was the regular food, with chiefly salted meat and flsh in 
 winter. As a result, .scurvy was very common. Dr. Cheyne, in 
 1734, says: " There is no chronical distemper more universal, more 
 obstinate, and more fatal in Britain than the scurvy." And it con- 
 tinued to be common down to 1783, when, Dr. Buchan says, " The 
 disease most common in this country is the scurvy." But very soon 
 afterward it decreased, owing to the growing use of potatoes and tea, 
 and au increased supply of fresh vegetables, fruit, milk, etc., which 
 the improved roads allowed to be brought in quantities from the 
 surrounding country. 
 
 Now, it is quite certain that the excessively unhealthy conditions 
 of life, as here briefly described, continued with \ery partial amelio- 
 ration throughout the middle portion of the century; and we have to 
 consider what were the causes which then came into operation, lead- 
 ing to the great improvement in health that undoubtedly occurred in 
 the latter portions of it and in the early part of our century. 
 
 Beginning with improvements in the streets and houses, we have, 
 in 1763, an Act passed for the removal of the overhanging sign- 
 boards, projecting waterspouts, and other such obstructions. In 
 1766 the first granite pavements were laid down, which were found 
 so beneficial, and in the end economical, that during the next half 
 century almost all London was thus paved. In 1768 the first Com- 
 missioners of Paving, Lighting, and Watching were appointed, and 
 by 1780 Dr. Black states that many streets had been widened, sewers 
 made; that there was a better water supply and less crowding,' 
 Promthis date onward, we are told in the "Encyclopaedia Britanuica" 
 (art. " London "), a rapid rate of progress commenced, and that since 
 1785 almost the whole of the houses within the city had been rebuilt, 
 1 See " Fourth Report of the Koyal Commiseion on Vaccination," Q. 10,917. 
 
320 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 witli wider streets aud much more light and air. In 1795 the western 
 side of Temple Bar and Snowhill were widened and improved, and 
 soon afterward Butchers' Row, at the back of St. Clement's Church, 
 WHS removed. Of course, these are only indications of changes tliat 
 were going on over the whole city; and, coincident with these im- 
 provements, there was a rapid e.xtension of the inhabited area, 
 which, from a sanitary point of view, was of far greater importance. 
 That agglomeration of streets, interspersed with spacious squares and 
 gardens, which extends to the north of Oxford Street, was almost 
 wholly built in the period we are discussing. Bloomsbury and Rus- 
 sell Squares and the adjacent streets occupy the site of Bedford 
 House and grounds, which were sold for building on in 1800. All 
 round London similar extensions were carried out. People went to 
 live in these new suburbs, giving up their city houses to business or 
 offices only. Regent's Park was formed, and Regent Street and 
 Portland Place were built before 1820, and the whole intervening 
 area was soon covered with streets and houses, which for some con- 
 siderable period enjoyed the pure air of the country. At this time 
 tlie water supply became greatly improved, and the use of Iron mains 
 in place of the old wooden ones, and of lead pipes, by which water 
 was carried into all the new houses, was of inestimable value from a 
 sanitary point of view. 
 
 Then, just at the same time, began the great improvement in the 
 roads, consequent on the establishment of mail coaches in 1784. 
 This at once extended the limits of residence for business men, while 
 it facilitated the supply of fresh food to the city. In 1801, London, 
 within the Bills of Mortalit3r, was increased in area by almost fifty 
 per cent., with comparatively very little increase of population, 
 owing to the suburban parishes of St. Luke's, Chelsea, Kensington, 
 Miiryleboue, Paddington, and St. Pancras being then included; and 
 even in 1821 this whole area had only a million inhabitants, and was 
 therefore still thinly peopled, aud enjoying semi-rural conditions of 
 lite ' The slight increase of population from 1801 to 1821 (about 
 one hundred and fifty thousand), notwithstanding this extension of 
 urea, proves that these suburban parishes were almost wholly peopled 
 from the denser parts of the city, and to a very small extent by fresh 
 immigrants from the country. It is also clear that many city inhab- 
 itants must have removed to outlying parishes beyond the Bills of 
 Mortality, in order to explain the very small increase of population in 
 twenty years. This dispersion of the former city population over a 
 
 * Tliese figures are given in the Eighth Annual Roport of the RegJHtrar-Gonrral, 
 and tlie parishes included are from the " Encyclopaedia Britunnica. " 
 
LONDON SANITARY IMPROVEMENTS. 321 
 
 much larger suburban area was, in all probability, the most power- 
 ful of the various sanitary causes which led to the great diminution 
 of mortality, both general and from the zymotic diseases.' 
 
 Another very important agency, at about the same time, was the 
 great change in the popular diet that then occurred — the change from 
 bread, beer, and salted meat or fish to potatoes, tea or coffee, and 
 fresh meat. Dr. Poore tells us that potatoes were first used in hos- 
 pital diet in 1767.' They steadily grew in favor, and in the early 
 part of this century had become so common that they almost com- 
 pletely abolished scurvy, the prevalence of which had no doubt ren- 
 dered other diseases more fatal. At the same time tea became a 
 common beverage. The consuniptiou of tea in England in 1775 was 
 5,648,000 pounds, and in 1801, 23,730,000 pounds— a more than four- 
 fold increase; a rate which has never been approached in any subse- 
 quent twenty-five years. With tea came the more general use of 
 milk and sugar; and it was this, perhaps, that helped to cause the 
 exceptionally rapid decrease of infant mortality. Again, in the same 
 period, the disuse of the cit3' churchyards for interments became 
 general; cemeteries were formed in various parts of the suburbs, till 
 such interments in any part of London were forbidden in 1845, thus 
 removing one more, and not an unimportant, source of disease from 
 the more crowded areas. 
 
 Now, the various classes of improvements here briefly indicated — 
 those in the city itself, in wider, cleaner, and less obstructed streets, 
 the construction of sewers, and better water supply; the more whole- 
 some food, especially in the use of potatoes and other vegetables, 
 and tea, with its accompanying milk and sugar, becoming common 
 
 * I have already repeatedly referred to the vital importance of epace, air, and 
 light for healthy living. A few more illii^itrations may be here given. In hie work, 
 already quoted, Dr. Poore gives a tabic of the mortality by measles and whooping- 
 cough of children under Ave, for the years 1871-80, in the different districts of 
 London, according to density of population. It gives the following results: 
 
 Deaths per 100,000 Livino. 
 Six districts, having more than 150 persons per acre, . . 1157 
 
 Seven " " from 100 to 150 " "... 1077 
 
 Seven " " " 50 to 100 " "... 968 
 
 Eight " " less than 50 " "... 743 
 
 The general death-rate follows the same law. In Lewieham, Wandsworth, and 
 Hampstead, with densities under 35 per acre, the death-rates arc under 15 per thou- 
 sand; while In Shoreditch, Whitechapel, St. George-in-the-East, and St. Saviour, 
 Southwark, with densities from 185 to 208 per acre, the death-rates are from 20 to 
 24 per thousand, according to the latest returns of the Registrar-General. 
 
 ' " London from a Sanitary and Medical I'oint of View," 1889. 
 
323 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 articles of diet; and, most important of all, the spreading out of the 
 population over a much wider area, enabling large numbers of per- 
 sons to hve under far more healthy conditions — all, as we have seen, 
 occurring simultaneously, and effecting this most fundamental 
 change within the half century from 1775 to 1835, are in their com- 
 bination amply suflBcient to account for that remarliable decrease of 
 mortality, not, as the Royal Commissioners suggest, pre-eminently 
 in small-pox, but in all the more important diseases, which especially 
 characterized this period. This is strikingly shown by Dr. Farr's 
 table printed in the Third Report (p. 198), of which the portion that 
 especially concerns us is here given. It shows us for two periods, 
 1771-80 and 1801-10, the deaths per one hundred thousand living 
 from the more important diseases. 
 
 Fourteen infantile diseases, 
 
 Small -pox, . 
 
 Fevers, .... 
 
 Consumption, 
 
 Dropsy, 
 
 1771-80. 
 
 1801-10. 
 
 1683 
 
 789 
 
 60S 
 
 204 
 
 621 
 
 264 
 
 1181 
 
 716 
 
 225 
 
 113 
 
 Here we see that, in the thirty years from 1775 to 1805, a change oc- 
 curred which reduced the mortality from all the chief diseases to half, 
 or less than half, their previous amount. Small-pox no doubt shows 
 the largest decrease; but as it is a decrease which was mainly effected 
 before vaccination was heard of, that operation cannot have been its 
 cause.' Now, the remarkable feature of this diminution of mortality 
 is, that in no similar period between 1639, when the Bills of Mortality 
 began, down to ilie prcneui year, has there been anything like it. And 
 the same may said i f the causes that led to it. Never before or 
 since has there been such an important change in the food of the 
 people, or such a rapid spreading out of the crowded population over 
 a much larger and previously unoccupied area; and these two 
 clianges are, I submit, when taken in conjunction with the sanitary 
 improvements in the city itself, and the much greater facilities of 
 communication between the town and country around, amply suffi- 
 cient to account for the sudden and unexampled improvement in the 
 general health, as indicated by the great reduction of the death-rate 
 from all the chief groups of diseases, including small-pox. 
 
 ' The decrease is probably exaggerated, owing to the confusion of measles with 
 emall-pox. Measles shows an increased mortality in the above period from forty- 
 eight to ninety -four, and as it increased throuuh the whole of the Bills of Mortality 
 it was probably being slowly differentiated from omall-pox. 
 
LONDON SANITARY IJIPROVEMENTS. 333 
 
 Now, in the whole of the Final Report, I can find no recognition 
 ■whatever of the remarkable and exceptional improvement in the gen- 
 eral health of London that has been shown to have occurred in the 
 period embracing the end of the last and the beginning of the pres- 
 ent centuries; nor of the equally exceptional changes of various kirids^ 
 all tending to improved health in the people. And, in view of the 
 facta here adduced, the statement of the Royal Commissioners that 
 " no evidence is forthcoming to show that during the first quarter of 
 the nineteenth century these improvements differentiated that quar- 
 ter from the preceding quarter or half of the preceding century in 
 any way at all comparable to the extent of the differentiation in 
 respect to small-pox,'' has, I submit, been shown to be wholly 
 erroneous. 
 
 And with respect to the absence of proof of similar changes having 
 occurred in other European countries, which they also urge against 
 the sanitation theory, we hardly need any such proof in detail. The 
 very fact of the immediate adoption of vaccination in all the more 
 civilized countries shows how rapid was the spread of ideas and of 
 customs at that very period. And when we consider, further, that 
 in the last century all the great European cities were at about the 
 same level of flitli and unhealthiness with London, and that a century 
 later there is not much difference between them, the probability is 
 in favor of their having all advanced approximately f)an' passu. And 
 with regard to the all-important change in diet and other habits, the 
 same rule applies. The use of potatoes and of tea or coffee, the bet- 
 ter water supply, drainage, ventilation, and good roads were all 
 adopted, — in France and Germany, at all events, — approximately 
 about the same period as with us. Hence it is not surprising that a 
 similar diminution in general mortality as well as in mortality from 
 zymotic diseases, including small-pox, should have occurred almost 
 simultaneously. The fact that when we have fairly good statistics, 
 as in Sweden, the great improvement in small-pox mortality is shown 
 to have occurred before the introduction of vaccination or before it 
 could have affected more than a small fraction of the population, 
 sufficiently proves that this was the case. 
 
 I have now supplied the last piece of confirmatory evidence which 
 the Commissioners declared was not forthcoming; not because I think 
 it at all necessary for the complete condemnation of vaccination, but 
 because it affords another illustration of the curious inability of this 
 Commission to recognize any causes as influencing the diminution of 
 small pox except that operation. In this, as in all the other cases I 
 
324 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 have discussed, their Report is founded upon the opinions and 
 beliefs of the medical and official upholders of vaccination; wliile 
 " the great masses of national experience,'' embodied in statistics of 
 mortality from various groups of diseases, as well as the well-known 
 facts of the sanitary history of London during the critical half- 
 century 1775-1835, are either neglected, misunderstood, or altogether 
 overlooked. 
 
CHAPTEK XIX. 
 
 MILITARISM THE CURSE OF CIVILIZATION. 
 
 1. Crime and Punishment. 
 
 Tliey love the most who are forgiven most; 
 And when right reason slowly dawns once more 
 On the wild madness of a moral fiend — 
 Our brother still and God's beloved child — 
 There comes a mighty gush of gratitude, 
 Thawing the hoar-frost of a life of crime, 
 Breaking the icy barriers of self-love, 
 While all the loosened rivers of the soul 
 Spring from their fountains radiant in the light. 
 
 — T. L. Harris. 
 
 The vilest deeds, like poison weeds. 
 
 Bloom well in prison air; 
 It is only what is good in Man 
 
 That wastes and withers there; 
 Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate. 
 
 And the Warder is Despair. 
 
 — The Ballad of Beading Jail. 
 
 The first half of the century produced much good 
 work that has not been further developed, many bright 
 promises that have not been fulfilled. The great ameli- 
 oration of the criminal law, by the exertions of Sir 
 Samuel Romilly, Sir James Mackintosh, and other re- 
 formers, have not been succeeded by any corresponding 
 reform of our system of punishment as a whole, which 
 still remains thoroughly inhuman and unjust, and op- 
 posed to all the admitted principles by which punishment 
 among a civilized people should be regulated. At the 
 
 3?5 
 
326 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 beginning of the century about twenty-five offences were 
 punishable with death, inchiding burglary, stealing from 
 a house or shop to the value of 40s., forgery, coining, 
 using old stamps on perfumery and hair powder, sheep- 
 and horse-stealing, and many others. Capital punish- 
 ment for all these minor offences was abolished before 
 the middle of the century; our prisons were greatly im- 
 proved as regards cleanliness and order; and transporta- 
 tion to Tasmania and the other Australian colonies, with 
 all its cruelties and abuses, had been got rid of. But 
 there we have stopped; and our treatment of criminals, 
 though not outwardly so harsh, is quite as much opposed 
 to the admitted principles which should regulate all 
 punishment as it M'as before ; while its effects are hardly, 
 if at all, less injurious to the criminals, both as regards 
 bodily and mental health, than the old bad system of the 
 last century. 
 
 Even Plato and other classical writers laid down the 
 principle that one of the gi"eat objects of all punishment 
 is the improvement of the criminal. Beccaria in the 
 last century developed this view of the true rationale of 
 punishment, and all modern students and philanthropists 
 admit it; yet during the whole century we have not 
 made a single step in this direction as regards the treat- 
 ment of adult prisoners. A cast-iron routine, solitude, 
 and a grinding military despotism under which the best 
 characters often suffer most, now characterize our penal 
 system, which is admitted to have the effect of making 
 the good bad and the bad worse; and further, of render- 
 ing it almost impossible for a first offender to escape from 
 a life of crime. There is no classification of offenders; 
 no sympathetic instruction; no attempt to improve the 
 
CHAP. XIX. THE CURSE OF CIVILIZATION. 327 
 
 character; no prei^aration for an honest hfe; no means 
 afforded the discharged prisoner enabling him to Hve an 
 honest life. We have, again and again, been shown 
 what modem penal servitude is like, by educated men 
 who have endured it. They all tell us that it is a hell 
 upon earth; that its tendency is to crush out every hit- 
 man feeling or higher aspiration; and that it sends the 
 majority of those who endure it back to the outside 
 world, worse in character and l.ess capable of living hon- 
 estly than they were before they entered the prison 
 walls. The system is utterly unchristian, utterly op- 
 posed to civilization, or philosophy, or common sense; 
 yet it remains in full force in these last years of the cen- 
 tury, and neither governments nor legislators seem to 
 think it a matter of sufficient impoi*tance to devote the 
 necessary time and study to its radical reform. 
 
 It must be admitted that in our prison system we see 
 one of the most terrible failures of the boasted civiliza- 
 tion of the nineteenth centurJ^ 
 
 In an allied department, the confinement of the in- 
 sane, there is also much room for reform. Their actual 
 treatment, both in public and private asylums, has 
 undergone enormous improvement during the early part 
 of the century, and is now almost as good as it can be 
 made in large asylums, where there is no possibility of 
 that proper classification, isolation, and individual treat- 
 ment which are essential to curative success. But the 
 great evil lies in the existence of private asylums, kept 
 for profit by their owners; and in the system by which, 
 on the certificate of two doctors, employed by any rela- 
 tive or friend, persons may be forcibly kidnapped and 
 carried to one of these private asylums, without any pub- 
 
328 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xix. 
 
 lie enquiry, and sometimes even Avitliout the knowledge 
 or consent of their other nearest relatives, or of those 
 friends who know most about them. The well-known 
 cases of Mrs. Weldon and Mrs. Lowe prove that per- 
 fectly sane persons may be thiis incarcerated, with the 
 possibility of making them insane by association with 
 mad people and all the horrors of a croAvded asylum. 
 These two ladies were incarcerated because they were 
 spiritualists; that is, because they held the same beliefs 
 as Sir William Crookes, the Earl of Crawford, G^-ald 
 Masey, and myself have held for the last thirty years, 
 and for holding which, to be consistent, we and hundreds 
 of other equally sane persons ought to have been perma- 
 nently confined as lunatics. The great ability and per- 
 fect sanitj^ of those ladies, and their having influential 
 friends, rendered it impossible to keep them permanently 
 confined ; but we may be sure that many less able per- 
 sons have been, and are now, cruelly and unjustly de- 
 prived of their liberty, and in some cases are made insane 
 by their terrible surroundings. The great danger of 
 trusting exclusively to professional opinions and state- 
 ments has been shown in my chapters on hypnotism and 
 vaccination. It is therefore imperative that no person 
 shall be deprived of his liberty on the allegation by any- 
 medical authorities of his insanity. The fact of insanity 
 should be decided, not by the patient's opinions, but by 
 his acts; and these acts should be proved before a jury, 
 who might also hear medical evidence, before condemna- 
 tion to an asylum. Asylums for the insane should all 
 belong to public authorities, so that the proprietors and 
 managers should have no pecuniary interest in the CQU- 
 tinued incarceration of their patients, 
 
OBAP. XIX. THE CURSE OP CIVILIZATION. 329 
 
 So late as 1890 a new and voluminous Lunacy Act 
 was passed, and the public no doubt believe that most of 
 the dangers of the old system are removed. But this is 
 not the case. An examination of this Act shows that 
 private asylums, kept for profit, remain as before. Doc- 
 tors' opinions are still all-powerful. Under an " urgency 
 order," on the certificate of one doctor, a person may be 
 dragged from his or her home to one of these private 
 asylums, and kept there for seven days, or till a judicial 
 order is obtained, which may sometimes be delayed for 
 three weeks. This judicial order is given by a duly 
 authorized magistrate, on formal application by some 
 pereon interested, and the certificates of two doctors. 
 The magistrate may see the alleged lunatic, if he pleases, 
 but he may act on the doctor's and petitioner's state- 
 ments alone. Whatever enquiry he makes is private; 
 but there is little doubt that in most cases he will act on 
 the medical and other statements before him. Then the 
 alleged lunatic is confined for a year; after that for two 
 years more; then for three years; then for five years, if 
 the medical officer of the asylum reports, before the end 
 of each period, that he is still insane. 
 
 And if, either at the first enquiry by the magistrate 
 or afterward, the patient is declared to be sane, and is 
 discharged, there is no provision for giving the alleged 
 lunatic any information as to the cause of his confine- 
 ment, or the statements of the medical men, or the per- 
 sons' names who caused him to be confined; so that, 
 really, he is still treated as a possible maniac, and is de- 
 nied redress if his incarcerators have acted illegally. 
 While confined in one of these private asylums the pa- 
 tient's letters to any official must be sent, but letters to 
 
330 THE Wonderful century. 
 
 any other persons, including his nearest relations or 
 friends, are only sent '' at the discretion " of the man- 
 ager. In like manner the visits of relations or friends 
 require an order from a Commissioner in Lunacy or an 
 official visitor of the asylum; but they are not obliged to 
 give such an order, so that if the manager of any private 
 asylum states that it is inadvisable, or that it would be 
 injurious to the patient, the order will probably be re- 
 fused. It thus appears that an alleged lunatic, once in 
 an asylum, is wholly dependent on the doctors for any 
 chance of getting out again. Everything is in their 
 hands. The patient may be deprived of all communica- 
 tion with friends, either personally or by letter; and 
 though he may see or write to a Commissioner, that will 
 avail him nothing if the medical superintendent either 
 mistakenly believes him to be insane, or has personal 
 reasons for keeping him in the asylum. From begin- 
 ning to end there is no publicity, no opportunity of dis- 
 proving any statements that may be made against him, 
 no means of proving his sanity in open court, and sub- 
 ject to the usual safeguards which are accorded to the 
 poorest criminal. 
 
 Still more dangerous to liberty is the provision, in 
 Sect. 20 of this Act, that any constable, relieving officer, 
 or overseer, may remove any alleged lunatic to the work- 
 house, if he is satisfied that this is necessary for the 
 public safety or the welfare of the alleged lunatic. It 
 seems hardly credible, but the judges, in a court of ap- 
 peal, have decided that any of the above named persona 
 may act on the private information of one person, with- 
 out seeing the alleged lunatic or giving him any oppor- 
 tunity to state or prove that he is not a lunatic! Yet 
 
CHAP. XIX. THE CURSE OF CIVILIZATION. 331 
 
 they did so decide in March, 1898. A Mr. Harward 
 quarrelled with his wife, and was rather violent, but did 
 not assault or touch her. Yet she went to the relieving 
 officer and said she was afraid her husband would com- 
 mit suicide or kill her and the children; and on this state- 
 ment, without any confirmation and without any per- 
 sonal interview, Mr. Harward was taken by force to the 
 workhouse and confined as a lunatic. Being found per- 
 fectly sane, he was soon released; and he then brought 
 an action against the Guardians of Hackney Union for 
 false imprisonment. The jury gave him £25 damages, 
 on the ground that " the relieving officer had not taken 
 reasonable care to satisfy himself that the plaintiff was 
 a dangerous lunatic." But the judges decided on appeal 
 that there was no evidence to show that the officer 
 " acted from any other motive than an honest belief," 
 and therefore he was not liable and the plaintiff had no 
 redress. On such grounds, it is evident that any pas- 
 sionate or violent person may, on a mere statement of a 
 relative professing to fear injury, without any further 
 enquiry, be captured and confined as a lunatic, and have 
 no redress. This is a mere parody on justice. Every- 
 one found to have been confined unjustly, for any cause 
 whatever, should receive an apology and compensation 
 from the authorities concerned, without being left to 
 appeal to the law, at great expense and trouble, and with 
 the chance of the further injustice of a decision against 
 him. 
 
 In view of such cases as this, and of the recent scan- 
 dalous kidnapping of Miss Lanchester ; and of the proved 
 danger of founding legislation on the statements and 
 opinions of doctors and officials in the matter of com- 
 
332 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xix. 
 
 pulsory vaccination, the actual state of our Lunacy laws 
 is a permanent danger to liberty and to the free expres- 
 sion of opinion, and is a disgrace to the closing years of 
 our century. 
 
 3. The Vampire of Wab. 
 
 Were half the power that fills the world with terror. 
 
 Were half the wealth bestowed on Camps and Courts, 
 Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
 
 There were no need for Arsenals and Forts. 
 The Warrior's name would be a name abhorred I 
 
 And every nation that should lift again 
 Its hand against a brother, on its forehead 
 
 Would wear for evermore the curse of Cain ! 
 
 — Longfellow. 
 
 Since tyrants by the sale of human life 
 Heap luxuries to their sensualism, and fame 
 To their wide-wasting and insatiate pride, 
 Success has sanctioned to a credulous world 
 The ruin, the disgrace, the woe of Wak. 
 
 — Shelley. 
 
 The first half of the nineteenth century was signalized 
 by the abolition of duelling. It had always been illegal, 
 and long been considered to be both absurd and wicked 
 by every advanced thinker; but only when forbidden to 
 military men by the War Office did it entirely disappear 
 among civilians. The same public opinion which 
 caused the disappearance of this form of private war 
 equally condemns war between nations as a means of set- 
 tling disputes, often of the most trivial kind; and rarely 
 of sufficient importance to justify the destruction of life 
 and property, the national hatreds, and the widespread 
 misery caused by it. Yet so far from any progress hav- 
 ing been made toward its abolition, the latter half of the 
 century has witnessed a revival of the war-spirit through- 
 
CHAP. XIX. THE CURSE OF CIVILIZATION. 333 
 
 out Europe; which region has now become a vast camp, 
 occupied by opposing forces greater in numbers than the 
 world has ever seen before. These great armies are con- 
 tinually being equipped with new and more deadly 
 weapons, at a cost which strains the resources even of the 
 most wealthy nations, and by the constant increase 
 of taxation and of debt impoverishes the mass of the 
 people. 
 
 The first International Exhibition, in 1851, fostered 
 the idea that the rulers of Europe would at length rec- 
 ognize the fact that peace and commercial intercourse 
 were essential to national well-being. But, far from any 
 such rational ideas being acted on, there began forth- 
 with a series of the most unjustifiable and useless dynas- 
 tic wars which the world has ever seen. The Crimean 
 War in 1854-55, forced on by private interests, with no 
 rational object in view, and terrible in its loss of life ; the 
 Austro-Prussian War in 1866; the French invasion of 
 Mexico, and the terrible Franco-German War, were all 
 dynastic quarrels, having no sufficient cause, and no rela- 
 tion whatever to the well-being of the communities 
 which were engaged in them. 
 
 The evils of these wars did not cease with the awful 
 loss of life and destruction of property, which were their 
 immediate results, since they formed the excuse for that 
 inordinate increase of armaments and of the war-spirit 
 under which Europe now groans. This increase, and the 
 cost of weapons and equipments, have been intensified 
 by the appUcation to war purposes of those mechanical 
 inventions and scientific discoveries which, properly 
 used, should bring peace and plenty to all, but which, 
 when seized upon by the spirit of militarism, directly 
 
334 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xix. 
 
 tend to enmity among nations and to the misery of the 
 people. 
 
 The first steps in this military development were the 
 adoption of a new rifle for the whole Prussian Army in 
 1846, the application of steam to our ships of war in 
 1840, and the use of iron armor for the protection of 
 battleships by the French in 1859. The remainder of 
 the century has witnessed a mad race between all the 
 Great Powers of Europe to increase the death-dealing 
 power of their weapons, and to add to the number and 
 efficiency of their armies; while among the maritime 
 powers there has been a stUl wilder struggle, in which 
 all the'resourees of modern science have been utilized in 
 order to add to the destructive power of cannon, and 
 both the defensive and the offensive powers of ships. 
 The various new explosives have been utilized in shells, 
 mines, and torpedoes ; rifled cannon of enormous size and 
 power have been manufactured; while battleships of 
 10,000 to 15,000 tons' displacement, protected by steel 
 armor from ten inches to twenty inches thick, with enor- 
 mous engines, often at the rate of a horse-power to every 
 ton, driving the ships at a speed of from twelve to 
 twenty-two knots an hour, have so transformed our fleet 
 that the majority of the ships bear no resemblance what- 
 ever to the majestic three-deckers and beautiful frigates 
 with which all our great naval victories were gained, and 
 which formed the bulk of our navy only fifty years ago. 
 
 Although the total number of warships and of vessels 
 of all kinds in our fleet are about the same as they were 
 in the middle of the century, their power for offence and 
 defence, and their cost, are immensely greater. Almost 
 all of them are built of iron or steel, and are full of costly 
 
THE CURSE OF CIVILIZATION. 335 
 
 machinery; while the torpedo-boats and torpedo-de- 
 stroyers are adapted for purposes quite different from 
 those of the smaller vessels of our old fleets. Some of 
 our modern first-class armored tuiTet-ships cost a million 
 sterling; and yet, as in the case of the Vanguard off 
 Kingstown in 1875, and more recently the Victoria in 
 the Mediterranean, they may be sent to the bottom by a 
 chance collision with a companion ship. The huge 110- 
 ton guns cost £20,000 each, and the more common 67- 
 ton gun costs £14,000. All the modem guns, as well as 
 their projectiles, are elaborate pieces of machinery, fin- 
 ishetl with the greatest perfection and beauty; and it 
 makes any thoughtful person sad to see such skill and 
 labor, and so much of the results of modern science, de- 
 voted to purposes of pure destruction. The six Great 
 Powers of Europe now possess about 300 battleships and 
 cruisers, from 2000 up to near 1 5,000 tons' displacement, 
 and nearly 2000 smaller vessels, which are able to de- 
 stroy life and jaroperty to an extent probably fifty-fold 
 greater than the fleets of the first half of the century. 
 
 But even this vast cost and loss to modem civilization 
 is surpassed by that of the armies of Europe. The num- 
 bers of men have greatly increased; their weapons and 
 equipments are more costly ; and the reserve forces to be 
 drawn upon in time of war include almost the whole 
 male adult populations, for whom reserves of arms, am- 
 munition, and all military supplies must be kept ready. 
 Counting only the armies of the six Great Powers on a 
 peace footing, they amount now to nearly three millions 
 of men ; and if we add the men permanently attached to 
 the several fleets, we shall have considerably more than 
 three millions of men in the prime of life withdrawn 
 
336 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. x.x. 
 
 from productive labor, and devoted, nominally to de- 
 fence, but really to attack and destruction. This, bow- 
 ever, is only a portion of the loss. The expense of keep- 
 ing these three millions of men in food and clothing, in 
 weapons, ammunition, and all the paraphernalia of war; 
 of keeping in a state of readiness the ships, fortifications, 
 and batteries; of continually renewing the stores of all 
 kinds; of pensions to the retired officers and wounded 
 men, and whatever other expenditures these vast mili- 
 tary organizations entail, amounts to an annual sum of 
 more than 180 millions sterling.^ ISTow, as the average 
 wages of a working man (or his annual expenditure) — 
 considering the low wages and the mode of living in 
 Russia, Italy, Austria, and the other Continental states — 
 cannot be more than, say, twelve shillings a week, or 
 thirty pounds a year, an expenditure of 180 millions 
 implies the constant labor of at least six million other 
 men in supporting this monstrous and utterly barbarous 
 system of national armaments. If to this number we 
 add those employed in making good the public or pri- 
 vate property destroyed in every war, or in smaller mili- 
 tary or naval operations in Europe, we shall have a grand 
 total of about ten millions of men withdrawn from all 
 useful or reproductive work, their lives devoted directly 
 or indirectly to the Moloch of war, and who must there- 
 fore be supported by the remainder of the working com- 
 munity. 
 
 And what a horrible mockery is all this when viewed 
 in the light of either Christianity or advancing civiliza- 
 
 ' This is the amount obtained by adding together the war expendi- 
 tures of the six Great Powers, as given in "The Statesman's Year 
 Book" for 1897. 
 
THE CURSE OF CIVILIZATION. 337 
 
 tion ! A 11 these nations, armed to the teeth, and watch- 
 ing stealthily for some occasion to use their vast arma- 
 ments for their own aggrandizement and for the injury 
 of their neighbors, are Christian nations. Their govern- 
 ments, one and all, loudly proclaim their Christianity by 
 word and deed — but the deeds are usually some form of 
 disability or persecution of those among their subjects 
 who are not orthodox. Of really Christian deeds there 
 are none — no real charity, no forgiveness of injuries, no 
 help to oppressed nationalities, no effort to secure peace 
 or good will among men. And all this in spite of the 
 undoubted growth of the true Christian spirit during 
 the last half-century. This spirit has even ameliorated 
 the inevitable horrors of war; by some regard for non- 
 combatants, by greatly increased care of the wounded 
 even among enemies, and by a recognition of some few 
 rights, even of savage races. 
 
 ISTever, perhaps, have the degrading influences of the 
 war-spirit been mcje prominent than in the last few 
 years, when all the great Christian powers stood grimly 
 by, while a civilized and Christian people were subjected 
 to the most cruel persecution, rapine, and massacre by 
 the direct orders, or with the consent and approval, of 
 the semi-barbarous Sultan of Turkey. Any two of them 
 had power enough to compel the despot to cease his per- 
 secution. Some certainly would have compelled him, 
 but they were afraid of the rest, and so stood still. The 
 excuse was even a worse condemnation than the mere 
 failure to act. Again and again did they cry out, " Iso- 
 lated action against Turkey would bring on a European 
 war." War between whom? War for what? There 
 is onlv one answer — " For plunder and conquest." It 
 
338 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chaf. iix. 
 
 means that these Christian governments do not exist for 
 the good of the governed, still less for the good of hu- 
 manity or civilization, but for the aggi'andizement and 
 greed and lust of power of the ruling cdasses — kings and 
 kaisers, ministers and generals, nobles and millionaires 
 — the true vampires of our civilization, ever seeking 
 fresh dominions from whose people they may suck the 
 very life-blood. "Witness their recent conduct toward 
 Crete and Greece, upholding the most terrible despotism 
 in the world because each one hopes for a favorable op- 
 portunity to obtain some advantage, leading ultimately 
 to the largest share of the spoil. Witness their struggle 
 in Africa and in Asia, where millions of savage or semi- 
 civilized peoples may be enslaved and bled for the bene- 
 fit of their new riders. The whole world is now but the 
 gambling table of the six Great Powers. Just as gam- 
 bling deteriorates and demoralizes the individiial, so the 
 greed for dominion demoralizes governments. The 
 welfare of the people is little cared /or, except so far as 
 to make them submissive tax-payers, enabling the ruling 
 and moneyed classes to extend their sway over new ter- 
 ritories and to create well-paid places and exciting work 
 for their sons and relatives. Hence comes the force that 
 ever urges on the increase of armaments and extensions 
 of empire. Great vested interests are at stake; and ever- 
 grooving pressiu'e is brought to bear upon the too-willing 
 govcrmucnts in the name of the greatness or the safety 
 of the Empire, the extension of commerce, or the ad- 
 vance of civilization. Anything to distract attention 
 from the starvation and wretchedness and death-dealing 
 trades at home, and the thinly-veiled slavery in many of 
 our tropical or sub-tropical colonies. The condemna- 
 
CHAP. XIX. THE CURSE OP CIVILIZATION. 339 
 
 tion of our system of rule over tributary states is to be 
 plainly seen in plague and famine running riot in India 
 after more than a century of British rule and nearly 
 forty years of the supreme power of the English govern- 
 ment.^ Neither plague nor famine occurs to-day in well- 
 
 ' The Parliamentary Papers recently issued on the Plague in India 
 reveal an insanitary condition of Calcutta and Bombay (and no doubt 
 of most other Indian cities) which is almost incredible; yet we may 
 be sure that it does not err on the side of exaggeration, because it 
 makes known such an utter disregard for the well-being of the 
 Indian peoples, while taxing them to the verge of starvation, as to 
 be nothing less than criminal. These Papers, and the discussion on 
 the Plague in Bombay at the Society of Arts, also illustrate that unre- 
 liability of interested official statements winch we have seen to be so 
 prominent a feature of the vaccination question. 
 
 In January, 1897, the Indian Government sent the Director-Gen- 
 eral of the Indian Medical Service, Dr. Cleghorn, to Bombay, to 
 examine personally into the conditions that led to the outbreak and 
 to recommend the best measures for dealing with it. He made " a 
 thorough investigation of the infected quarters,'" and this is what he 
 states: About seventy per cent, of the whole native population 
 (about 800,000) live in " chawls " or tenement-houses of various sizes, 
 the largest being six or seven stories high and holding from 000 to 
 1000 people each. They consist, on each floor, of a long corridor, 
 with small rooms on each side about 8 feet by 12 feet, each room in- 
 habited by a family, often of 5 or 6 persons. The sanitary arrange- 
 ments were utterly inadequate, the consequence being that the 
 corridors, especially at the ends, became receptacles of filth of every 
 kind, and were apparently never thoroughly cleaned. But the 
 greatest evil of all was that these overcrowded tenements were 
 built side by side, often with a space of only three or four feet 
 between them, so that, even if the windows were open, in all the 
 lower floors there could be neither adequate light nor ventilation. 
 The privacy of Indian domestic life, however, forbade the opening 
 of these windows, so that practically in half at least of the 
 rooms there was neither light nor ventilation. Added to this, 
 the narrow alleys between the chawls, owing to the inadequacy of 
 other accommodation, were used as refuse pits and open sewers, 
 where filth was allowed to accumulate, so that both inside and out- 
 side there were masses of disease-breeding matter. Even if the rooms 
 
340 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. x«. 
 
 governed communities. That the latter, at all events, 
 
 is almost chronic in India, a country with an industrious 
 
 people and a fertile soil, is the direct result of governing 
 
 in the interests of the ruling classes instead of making 
 
 the interests of the governed the first and the only 
 
 object. But in this respect India is no worse off than 
 
 our own country. The condition of the bulk of our 
 
 workers, the shortness of their lives, the mortality among 
 
 their children, and the awful condition of misery aud 
 
 and corridors were kept clean, the darkness, the want of ventilation, 
 and the overcrowding would be sources of deadly disease. With 
 the superadded filth inside and out and the tropical climate, the 
 absence, rather than tlie presence, of plague would seem the more 
 extraordinary phenomenon, since the condition of London in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries could hardly have been so bad. 
 The same Parliamentary Paper (up to March, 1897) contains a Sani- 
 tary Inspection Report on Calcutta, which goes much more into 
 detail, and describes a state of things of the most terrible and almost 
 incredible nature. As examples — six men and boys lived and cooked 
 in a room 7x7x6 feet, which had no window, and with filth and 
 sewage all around. Of another street we read ; ' ' The houses are 
 built almost back to back. It would be nearly impossible to squeeze 
 between them; sunlight is so far shut out that, with broad daylight 
 outside the gully, it is absolutely impossible to do more than grope 
 your way within these tenements; rats run about here in the dark as 
 they would at night; a heavy, sickening odor pervades the whole 
 place; walls and floors are alike damp with contamination from 
 liquid sewage, which lies rotting and for which there is no escape." 
 There are eight foolscap pages of this Report, going into even more 
 horrible details; and there can be no doubt that a large portion of it 
 will apply just as well to Bombay as to Calcutta, and thus enable us 
 to realize more fully the condition of the many hundred thousand 
 dwellers in the worst parts of that plague-stricken city. In the discus- 
 sion that followed the reading of Mr. Birdwood's paper at the Society 
 of Arts, Dr. Simpson, late Health OflBcer in Calcutta— who had been 
 in Bombay assisting the search parties in the plague-stricken dis- 
 tricts — stated that, " bad as the houses were in some parts of Cal- 
 cutta, he found them immensely worse at Bombay." On the other 
 band, Mr, Acvvorth, late Municipal Coinmissioner of Bombay, said 
 
3HAP.XIX. THE CURSE OF CIVILIZATION. 341 
 
 vice under which millions are forced to live in the slums 
 of all our great cities, are, in proportion to our wealth 
 and their nearness to the centre of government, even' 
 more disgraceful than the periodic famines of remote 
 India. Both are the results of the same system — the 
 exploitation of the workers for the benefit of the ruling 
 caste — and both alike are among the most terrible fail- 
 ures of the century. 
 
 The state of things briefly indicated in this chapter is 
 not progress, but retrogression. It will be held by the 
 historian of the future to show that we of the nine- 
 teenth century were morally and socially unfit to possess 
 
 that the Bombay " chawls" were not so bad as the Calcutta " bus- 
 tees"; that it was " utterly untrue to say that Bombay was a grossly 
 insanitary town," and that it was really the most sanitary large town 
 in India! But the climax of contradiction is reached by the Rev. A. 
 Bowman, late chaplain of Byculla Jail, Bombay, who stated in a 
 letter to The Times (reprinted in tbe Journal of the Society of Arts, 
 vol. xM. p. 333), that he had known the streets and lanes of Bom- 
 bay intimately for the last five years, and he says, without fear of 
 contradiction, that such places as were described by the Surgeon- 
 General [Dr. Cleghorn] do not exist! The reverend gentleman 
 referred especially to "chawls" holding one thousand people, and 
 rooms and corridors which the light of day could not enter; but he 
 apparently did not then know that Dr. Cleghorn had made these 
 statements in an official memorandum for the information of the 
 Qovernment of India, or he would hardly have made his contradic- 
 tion so emphatic. 
 
 But what are we to think of a Government that has allowed the 
 srection of such tenements in tbe two chief cities of the empire, and 
 which takes no heed of the most rudimentary principles of sanita- 
 tion till a visitation of plague compels attention to them? A Gov- 
 srnment which spends millions on railroads, on gigantic armies, on 
 mnexations and frontier wars, on colleges and schools, and on mag- 
 nificent public buildings, while allowing a considerable proportion 
 jf the native population to live in such horribly insanitary condi- 
 ;ions as to rival tbe worst plague-infected cities of Europe in the 
 Middle Ages. And this is modern civilization! 
 
342 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xix. 
 
 and use the enormous powers for good or evil which the 
 rapid advance of scientific discovery had given us; that 
 our boasted civilization was in many resj)ects a mere sur- 
 face veneer; and that our methods of government were 
 not in accordance with either Christianity or civiliza- 
 tion. This view is enforced by the consideration that 
 all the European wars of the century have been due to 
 dynastic squabbles or to obtain national aggrandizement, 
 and were never waged in order to free the slave or pro- 
 tect the oppressed without any ulterior selfish ends. 
 
 It has been often said that Companies have no souls, 
 and the same is still more true of the Governments of our 
 day. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE DEMON OF GKEED. 
 
 What of men ia bondage, toiling, blunted. 
 
 In the roaring factory's lurid gloom? 
 What of cradled infants, starved and stunted? 
 
 What of woman's nameless martyrdom? 
 The all-seeing sun shines on unheeding. 
 
 Shines by night the calm, unruffled moon. 
 Though the human myriads, preying, bleeding, 
 
 Put creation harshly out of tune. 
 
 — Mathilde Blind. 
 Are there no ■wrongs of nations to redress; 
 No misery-frozen sons of wretchedness; 
 No orphans, homeless, staining with their feet 
 The very flag-stones of the wintry street; 
 No broken-hearted daughters of despair, 
 Forlornly beautiful, to be your care? 
 Is there no hunger, ignorance, or crime? 
 O that the prophet-bards of old, sublime. 
 That grand Isaiah and his kindred just. 
 Might rouse ye from your slavery to the dust. 
 
 — T. L. Harris. 
 
 One of the most prominent features of our century 
 has been the enormous and continuous growth of wealth, 
 without any corresponding increase in the well-being of 
 the whole people; while there is ample evidence to show 
 that the number of the very poor — of those existing 
 with a minimum of the bare necessaries of life — has 
 enormously increased, and many indications that they 
 constitute a larger proportion of the whole population 
 than in the first half of the century, or in any earlier 
 period of our history. 
 
 343 
 
344 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xx. 
 
 This increase of individual wealth is most clearly 
 shown by the rise and continuotis increase of million- 
 aires, who, by various modes, have succeeded in possess- 
 ing themselves of vast amounts of riches created by 
 others, thus necessarily impoverishing those who did 
 create it. Sixty or seventy years ago a millionaire was 
 a rarity. I well remember, in my boyhood, my father 
 reading in the Times an account of the death of a man 
 (a merchant, I think) who had left a fortune of a mil- 
 lion, as something altogether marvellous which he had 
 never heard of before. Now, they are to be reckoned 
 by scores, if not by hundreds, in this country, and excite 
 no special remark; while in America, a country having 
 a inuch larger amount of natural wealth and of human 
 labor to draw upon, they are far more numerous, reach- 
 ing, it is estimated, about two thousand. 
 
 In our own country the annual produce of labor, from 
 which the whole expenditure of the people necessarily 
 comes, is estimated at 1350 millions sterling; and this 
 amount is so unequally divided that one million persons 
 among the wealthy receive more than twice as much of 
 this income as the twenty-six million constituting the 
 manual labor class. In America the inequality is still 
 greater, there being 4047 families of the rich who own 
 about five times as much property as 6,599,796 families 
 of the poor. 
 
 The causes of this enormous inequality of distribu- 
 tion, and of all the evils that flow from it, are alike in 
 both countries — the practical monopoly of the land and 
 all the mineral wealth it contains, by one section of the 
 wealthy, and of what is usually tcnned capital by an- 
 other; resulting in the monopoly by these two classes, 
 
THE DEMON OF GREED. 345 
 
 who may both he termed capitaHsts, of all the products 
 of indnstrv and all the industrial applications of science. 
 This arises from the fact that those who have neither 
 land nor capital are obliged to work, at competition 
 wages, for the capitalists; who, for the same reason, have 
 the command of all scientific discovery and all the invent- 
 ive ability of the nation, and even of the whole civilized 
 world. Hence it has happened that the development of 
 steam navigation, of railroads and telegraphs, of me- 
 chanical and chemical science, and the growth of the 
 population, while enormously increasing productive 
 power and the amount of material products — that is, of 
 real wealth — at least ten times faster than the growth 
 of the population, has given that enormous increase al- 
 most wholly to one class, comprising the landlords and 
 capitalists, leaving the actual producers of it — the indus- 
 trial workers and inventors — little, if any, better off than 
 before. If this tenfold increase of real wealth had been 
 so distributed that all were equally benefited, then every 
 worker would have had ten times as much of the neces- 
 saries and comforts of life, including a greater amount 
 of leisure and enjoyment; while none would have 
 starved, none would have slaved fourteen or sixteen 
 hours a day for a bare existence, none need have had 
 their lives shortened by unwholesome or dangerous 
 occupations; and yet the capitalists and landlords might 
 also have had their proportionate share of the increase. 
 As it is, they have had many times more than their pro- 
 portionate share; the result being that, if we take the 
 whole of the class of manual laborers, little, if any, of the 
 increase has gone to them. 
 
 A number of well-established facts prove this. In 
 
346 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. ohap. xx. 
 
 the first place, tlie most recent estimates of Giffen, Mul- 
 liall, and Leoni Levi, gave an average annual income of 
 £77, or almost exactly 30s. a week, for each adult male 
 of the working classes. But great numbers of these, in- 
 cluding all the skilled mechanics, miners, etc., get con- 
 siderably more than this, so that the remainder must get 
 less. ISTow, Mr. Charles Booth puts the " margin of 
 poverty " in London at a guinea a week per family, the 
 test being that less than this sum does not afford suffi- 
 cient of the absolute necessaries of life — food, clothing, 
 a sanitary dwelling, and ample firing — to keep up health 
 and strength; and he estimates that there are in London 
 about 1,300,000 persons who live below this margin; 
 and if we add to these the inmates of workhouses, 
 prisons, hospitals, and asylums, we arrive at the fact that 
 about one-tliird of the total population of London are 
 living miserable, poverty-stricken lives, the bulk of them 
 with grinding, hopeless toil, only modified by the still 
 worse condition of want of employment, with its accom- 
 paniments of harassing anxiety and partial starvation. 
 And this is a true picture of what exists in all our great 
 cities, and to a somewhat less degree of intensity over 
 the whole country. There is surely very little indica- 
 tion here of any improvement in the condition of the 
 people. Can it be maintained — has it ever been sug- 
 gested — that in the early part of the century more than 
 one-third of the inhabitants of London did not have 
 sufficient of the bare necessaries of life? In order that 
 there may have been any considerable improvement, an 
 improvement in any degree commensurate with the vast 
 increase of wealth, a full half of the entire population 
 of London must then have lived in this condition of want 
 
cBAP.xx. THE DEMON OF GREED. 347 
 
 and misery; and I am not aware that any writer has 
 even suggested, mnch less proved, that such was the 
 case. I believe myself that in no earlier period has there 
 been such a large proportion of our population living in 
 absolute want — below " the margin of poverty " — as at 
 the present time; hence there has been no improvement 
 in the condition of the mass of miscellaneoTis unskilled 
 workers, who are now far more numerous than they ever 
 were before. A few reasons for this belief may be 
 given. 
 
 Since 1856 the Registrar-General has given the num- 
 ber of deaths in workhouses, hospitals, and other public 
 institutions, for London, and also for England and 
 Wales,^ and in both areas the proportion of such deaths 
 has been increasing for the last thirty-five years. In 
 1888 the Registrar-General called attention to this por- 
 tentous increase, which has not yet reached its maxi- 
 mum. The following are the figures, in quinquennial 
 averages, since 1870: 
 
 Deaths in Public Institutions in London. 
 
 Ybabb. 
 
 Per Cent, of 
 Deaths. 
 
 Total 
 
 Years. 
 
 Per Cent, op Total 
 Deaths. 
 
 1861-65, 
 
 . . 16.3 
 
 
 1881-85, 
 
 . . 21.1 
 
 1871-75, 
 
 . . 17.4 
 
 
 1886-90, 
 
 . . 23.4 
 
 1876-80, 
 
 . . 18.6 
 
 
 1891-95, 
 
 . 26.7 
 
 In 1861-65, the earliest five years, the proportion 
 was 16.2 per cent. In 1892-96, the latest published, it 
 was 26.9. And what makes this more terrible is, first, 
 that during this period private charity has been increas- 
 ing enormously; and, secondly, that almost weekly we 
 
 ' The proportions for England and Wales are about half those for 
 London. 
 
348 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xx. 
 
 see proofs of a growing dislike to the workhouse, so that 
 numbers actually die of want rather than apply to the 
 relieving officer. From 1860 to ]885 no less than 130 
 new charitable organizations had been established in 
 London, and in the next ten years there were nearly 50 
 more. Many of these were small and local, but others 
 embraced all London, and have continuously increased 
 in power. Dr. Barnado's Homes, for example, begin- 
 ning on a very small scale in 1866, have so increased 
 that 5000 children who would otherwise be paupers or 
 criminals are supported, educated, and started in life 
 either at home or abroad. And the Cliurch of England 
 Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays, 
 established only in 1882, now supports about 2000 chil- 
 dren. There are in London about forty other institu- 
 tions of similar character, each supporting from 250 to 
 1000 children, and fifty others with a smaller number; 
 besides a large number of almshouses, hospitals, reforma- 
 tories, homes, and charity schools. And all these insti- 
 tutions are constantly appealing for more funds, because 
 they cannot keep up with the ever-increasing flood of 
 want and misery. Then there is the large amount of 
 relief distributed through the Charity Organization So- 
 ciety, with the shelters, the farm-colony, and the exten- 
 sive rescue work of the Salvation Anny. And all this 
 work of relief has been going on and ever increasing, 
 while the numbers of those who spend their last years 
 and die in public institutions has also been increasing, 
 not in numbers merely, but in proportion to the total 
 deaths. And in the face of this overwhelming evidence 
 of the increase of poverty and misery and starvation, 
 the official apologists for things as they are, most writers 
 
CHAP. XX. THE DEMON OF GREED. 849 
 
 for the press, and most politicians, go on declaring that 
 pauperism is decreasing, because, by more strict rules, 
 out-rclief is reduced or refused altogether; while the bet- 
 ter class of the suffering poor prefer starvation or suicide 
 to breaking up their home, however miserable, and 
 enduring the servitude and prison-like monotony of the 
 workhouse. 
 
 Suicides have indeed increased most alarmingly, from 
 1347 in 1861 to 279G in 1895. This is for England 
 and Wales; and the increase in proportion to the popu- 
 lation has been from 67 per million to 92 per million. 
 An examination of the records of inquests show that 
 either absolute want or the dread of want is a very fre- 
 quent cause; and as the other evidence just adduced 
 indicates the continuous increase of want, while the ever- 
 increasing struggle in all forms of trade leads to the con- 
 tinual discharge of men and women who from illness or 
 old age are unable to do the same amount of work as the 
 younger and more healthy, the two sets of facts are seen 
 to be connected as cause and effect. If, however, pov- 
 erty and unmerited want were decreasing, and the poor 
 were, decade by decade, becoming better off, then the 
 large and continuous increase, for more than thirty 
 years, of deaths by suicide and in public charitable in- 
 stitutions, during the very same time that private charity 
 in varied forms had increased at an altogether unprece- 
 dented rate, becomes altogether inexplicable. If pov- 
 erty had been decreasing, then we should expect the 
 enormously increased and widespread sphere of public 
 charity to have easily overtaken the severer forms of dis- 
 tress; to have reduced tlie deaths in the workhouse and 
 asylum; to have diminished suicide from the dread of 
 
350 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xx. 
 
 destitution; and to have abolished actual death from 
 starvation in the richest and most charitable city in the 
 world. But the facts are exactly the opposite of all 
 this; and I submit that there is no rational ex'planation of 
 tliem other than a continuous increase of the extremest 
 forms of misery and want. 
 
 Illustrations of the Poverty of To-day. 
 
 But these figures, proving the unequal distribution of 
 wealth and the widespread destitution in our midst, how- 
 ever important and expressive to the thinker and the 
 student, do not enable the general reader to realize their 
 full meaning without a few concrete examples of what 
 the poverty of to-day actually is. A few illustrative 
 cases will therefore be given as typical of thousands and 
 hundreds of thousands in everj' jiart of our country. 
 
 And first, let us hear what the author of the " Bitter 
 Cry of Outcast London " had to say in 1883, the state- 
 ments in which work, though at first denied or declared 
 to be exaggerated, were proved to be exact by the Com- 
 mission of Enquiry which followed shortly after. And 
 first as to the places in which the very poor live. 
 
 " Few who will read these pages have any conception 
 of what these pestilential human rookeries are, where 
 tens of thousands are crowded together amidst horrors 
 which call to mind what we have heard of the middle 
 passage of the slaveship. To get into them joii have 
 to penetrate courts reeking with poisonous gases arising 
 from accumulations of sewage and refuse scattered in all 
 directions and often flowing beneath your feet; courts, 
 many of them which the sun never penetrates, which are 
 never visited by a breath of fresh air, and which rarely 
 
CHAP. XX. THE DEMON OF GREED. 351 
 
 know the virtues of a drop of cleansing water. You have 
 to ascend rotten staircases which threaten to give way be- 
 neath every step, and which in some places have already 
 broken down. You have to grope your way along dark 
 and filthy passages swarming with vermin. Then, if 
 you are not driven back by the intolerable stench, you 
 may gain admittance to the dens in which these thou' 
 sands of beings, who belong as much as you to the race 
 for whom Christ died, herd together." . . . 
 
 " Every room in these reeking tenements houses a 
 family or two. In one room a missionary found a man 
 ill with small-pox, his wife just recovering from her con- 
 finement, and the children running about half naked and 
 covered with dirt. Here are seven people living in one 
 underground kitchen, and a little dead child lying in the 
 same room. Here live a widow and her six children, 
 two of whom are ill with scarlet fever. In another, 
 nine brothers and sisters from twenty-nine years of age 
 downward, live, eat, and sleep together." 
 
 And so the wretched and shameful story goes on, and 
 the author assures us that these are not " selected cases," 
 but that they simply show what is to be found " in house 
 after house, court after court, street after street"; and 
 that the accounts are in no way exaggerated, but are 
 often toned down, because the actual facts are too hor- 
 rible to be printed. 
 
 And next, as to the work by which they live. A 
 woman, trouser-making, can earn one shilling a day if 
 she works seventeen hours at it. A woman with a sick 
 husband and a little child to look after, works at shirt- 
 finishing, at Sd. a dozen, and can earn barely Qd. a day. 
 Another maintains herself and a blind husband by mak- 
 
353 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xx. 
 
 ing match boxes at 2^d. a gross, and has to pay a girl Id. 
 a gross to help her. Here is a mother who has pawned 
 her four children's clothes, not for drink, but for coals 
 and food. She obtained only a shilling, and bought 
 seven pounds of coals and a loaf of bread! Think of 
 the agony of distress a mother must have endured before 
 she could do this! And the fifteen years that have 
 passed, notwithstanding the " Royal Commission," 
 leaves it all just as bad as before. This is what Mr. 
 Arthur Sherwell says, in his recently published " Life 
 in West London," as to the district north of Soho, where 
 there are more than 100,000 persons living below " the 
 margin of poverty ": 
 
 " Even under normal conditions the pressure of pov- 
 erty represented by these figures is extreme; but when, 
 as in 1895, the winter is of exceptional severity, the 
 pressure becomes intolerable. Many of the families 
 lived for weeks on soup and bread from the various 
 charitable soup-kitchens in the neighborhood. Every 
 available article of furniture or clothing was sold or 
 pawned; in some cases the boots were taken off the chil- 
 dren's feet and pawned for bread or fuel. A number 
 of families, even in the bitterest times of the long frost, 
 lived for days Avithout fire or light, and often with no 
 food but a chance morsel of bread or tea. One family 
 had lived for weeks on bread and tea and dripping. In 
 another room a family was found consisting of the 
 mother and six children (the father had been in the in- 
 firmary for seven weeks), who had lived on a penny- 
 worth of bread, a pennyworth of tea, a halfpennyworth 
 of sugar, and a halfpennyworth of milk — every other 
 day, and this was got on credit. . . In a filthy room in 
 
CHAP XX. THE DEMON OF GREED. 363 
 
 another street were found several children entirely 
 naked (this in the severest days of the long frost)! 
 Their mother had been out since morning, looking for 
 work. Several cases were found where the family had 
 been without food (sometimes without fire also) for 
 three days." And while all this was going on, and in 
 one street there were 115 adults out of work, 80 of whom 
 had been so from one to nine months, there were, in the 
 same district, between seven and eight thousand paupers 
 in the various workhouse institutions. 
 
 As one more example from a different area we have 
 Mrs. Hogg's account of the fur-pullers of South London, 
 in the Nineteenth Century of November, 1897: 
 
 " The room is barely eight feet square, and it has to 
 serve for day and night alike. Pushed into one comer 
 is the bed, a dirty pallet tied together with string, upon 
 which is piled a black heap of bedclothes. On one half 
 of the table are the remains of breakfast — a crust of 
 bread, a piece of butter, and a cracked cup, all thickly 
 coated with the all-pervading hairs. The other half is 
 covered with pulled skins waiting to be taken to the 
 shop. The window is tightly closed, because such air 
 as can find its way in from the stifling court below 
 would force the hairs into the noses and eyes and lungs 
 of the workers, and make life more intolerable for them 
 than it is already. To the visitor, indeed, the choking 
 sensation caused by the passage of the hairs into the 
 throat, and the nausea from the smell of the skins, is, at 
 first, almost too overpowering for speech." 
 
 Two women work in this horrible place for twelve 
 hours a day, and can then earn only Is. id., out of which 
 comes cost of knives and knife-grinding, and fines and 
 
354 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xx. 
 
 deductions of various kinds. In another room one 
 Avoman kept herself and a daughter of nine by working 
 all day and earning only about 7s. 6d. a week. When 
 the work was over she was often so exhausted that she 
 threw herself on the bed too tired even to get food. 
 And for these poor people, of whom there are thou- 
 sands, there is no hope, no future, but a life of such 
 continuous labor, discomfort, and penury, as to be almost 
 unimaginable to ordinary people. 
 
 The descriptions now given illustrate the horrible 
 gulf of extreme poverty in which more than a quarter of 
 a million of the people of London constantly live, and 
 into which, sooner or later, are precipitated almost the 
 whole of the million and a quarter who are permanently 
 living below the poverty line, and to Avhom illness or 
 want of work brings on absolute destitution. And we 
 must note that none of these writers, who really know 
 the people they write about, impute any considerable 
 proportion of this misery to vice or drink, but to condi- 
 tions over which the sufferers have no control; while it 
 is certain that both vice and drink are very frequently 
 the consequences of the very conditions of life they are 
 supposed to bring about. 
 
 And for this condition of things there is absolutely no 
 suggestion of a remedy by our legislators. Better hous- 
 ing has been talked about this twenty years, but if done, 
 how would it supply work, or food, or coals, or clothing? 
 The very suggestion that better houses is the one thing 
 needed is a cruel mockery and a confession of impotence 
 and failure. 
 
CHAP. XX. THE DEMON OF GREED. 365 
 
 Dangerous and Unhealthy Trades. 
 
 Equally terrible with the amount of want and misery, 
 due mainly to insufficient earnings, want of work, or ill- 
 ness, are the enormous injury to health and shortening of 
 life due to unhealthy and dangerous trades, almost all 
 of whiph could be made healthy and safe if human life 
 were estimated as of equal value with the acquisition of 
 wealth by individuals. 
 
 In ]\Irs. C. Mallet's tract on " Dangerous Trades for 
 "Women," we find it stated that girls who do the carding 
 in the linen trade lost their health in about twelve years; 
 the very strongest picked men in the alkali works as a 
 rule do not live to be fifty; glass-blowers become pre- 
 maturely old at forty, and sometimes become blind; in 
 the Potteries deaths from phthisis are three times as 
 numerous as among other workers. But all these trades 
 are inferior in deadliness to the white-lead manufactures, 
 in which numbers of girls and women are employed. 
 Some work on for several years without appreciable in- 
 jury, but the majority suffer greatly in a year or two, 
 many die in a few months, and some in a few weeks or 
 even days. In this trade the percentage of deaths is 
 higher than in any other, and the real amount is never 
 known, because, when the workers become ill, they are 
 usually discharged. They then perhaps work for a time 
 at some other employment, perhaps in another place, and 
 if they ultimately die of lead-poisoning or its conse- 
 quences, their connection with the dangerous trade is 
 lost. The children bom of lead-workers usually die of 
 convulsions, and one woman lost eight children in this 
 way. Mr. Eobert Sherrard, in his " White Slaves of 
 
356 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xx. 
 
 England," has given a later and fuller account, perfectly 
 agreeing with Mrs. Mallet's statements published three 
 years earlier; and notwithstanding the abuse and denials 
 by interested parties, all his essential facts ai'e fully 
 borne out by the quotations he now gives in an Appen- 
 dix, from the reports of several committees, select or 
 departmental, which have enquired into the various 
 trades he has described, together with the evidence from 
 coroners' inquests and other sources. Anyone who 
 reads this Appendix alone will be thoroughly convinced 
 of the ten'ible amount of human suffering and of death 
 resulting from the " dangerous trades " of England, 
 though their total amoimt can never be fully realized. 
 
 And the whole of this destruction of human life and 
 happiness is absolutely needless, since many of the 
 prodvicts are not necessaries of life, and all without ex- 
 ception could be made entirely harmless if adequate 
 pressure were brought to bear upon the manufacturers. 
 Let every death that is clearly traceable to a dangerous 
 trade be made manslaughter, for which the owners, or, 
 in the case of a company, the directors, are to be pun- 
 ished by imprisonment, not as first-class misdemeanants, 
 and ways will soon be found to carry away or utilize the 
 noxious gases, and provide automatic machinery to carry 
 and pack the deadly white lead and bleaching powder; 
 as would certainly be done if the owners' families, or per- 
 sons in their own rank of life, were the only available 
 workers. 
 
 Even more horrible than the white-lead poisoning is 
 that by phosphorus, in the match-factories. Phosphorus 
 is not necessary to make matches, but it is a trifle cheaper 
 and a little easier to light (and so more dangerous), and is 
 
THE DEMON OF GREED. 357 
 
 therefore still largely used; and its cifect on the workers 
 is terrible, rotting away the jaws with the agonizing- 
 pain of cancer often followed by death. Will it be be- 
 lieved in future ages tliat this horrible and unnecessary 
 manufacture, the evils of which we>re thoroughly known, 
 was yet allowed to be carried on to the very end of this 
 century, which claims so many great and beneficent dis- 
 coveries, and prides itself on the height of civilization it 
 has attained? To what a depth of helplessness must the 
 poor be brought, when young girls eagerly throng to 
 these deadly trades, rather than face the struggle for 
 food and life by other means! 
 
 And in the midst of this very pandemonium of want 
 and suifering, the rich are ever becoming more rich, and 
 boast of it. The City Press tells us that the increased 
 profits in the City of London during the ten years from 
 1880 to 1890 were no less than £30,755,283, and it adds: 
 " This is the best evidence that can be furnished of our 
 commercial prosperity." A million people in London 
 without sufficient food and clothing and fire for a healthy 
 life — but great commercial prosperity! Thousands 
 maimed or racked and tort^ired to death by dangerous 
 trades — but great commercial prosperity! Those who 
 die paupers' deaths increasing in the ten years from 21 
 to 26 per cent, of the total deaths — but what of that, 
 when we have gTeat commercial prosperity! The aver- 
 age lives of the lower class of artisans and workers in the 
 unwholesome trades being only 29 years, while that of 
 the upper classes is 55 years — millions thus killed 25 
 years before their time; but then we have " Great Com- 
 mercial Prosperity "! 
 
 With remarkable foresight Professor Caimes, in 
 
358 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xx. 
 
 1874, wi'ote that so long as the workers were dependent 
 on the capitaHsts for employment " the margin for the 
 possible imjjrovement of theii* lot is confiaed within nar- 
 row barriers which cannot be passed, and the problem of 
 their elevation is hopeless. As a body they will not rise 
 at all. A few, more energetic or more fortunate than 
 the rest, will from time to time escape, as they do now, 
 from the ranks of their fellows to the higher walks of 
 industrial life, but the great majority will remain sub- 
 stantially where they are. The remuneration of labor, 
 as such, skilled or unskilled, can never rise much above 
 its present level." ^ 
 
 The result of a quarter of a century more of this de- 
 pendence, though the capitalists as a class have become 
 enormously richer, is the state of things here imperfectly 
 depicted. And so it must remain till the workers learn 
 what alone Avill save them, and take the matter into their 
 own hands. The capitalists will consent to nothing but 
 a few small ameliorations, which may improve the condi- 
 tion of select classes of workers, but will leave the great 
 mass just where they are. For without these thousands 
 of struggling, starving humanity, which furnish an in- 
 exhaustible reserve of cheap labor, they believe that they 
 cannot go on increasing their wealth; and they sys- 
 tematically oppose all measures which would utilize that 
 labor for the well-being of the laborers themselves, and 
 thus raise wages from the very bottom. This explains 
 why they ignored Mr. Mather's very moderate scheme 
 submitted to the Select Committee on the Unemployed, 
 as well as the far more effectual ajid practical scheme of 
 
 ' " Some Leading Principles of Political Economy," p. 348. 
 
OHAP. XX. THE DEMON OF GREED. 369 
 
 Mr. Herbert V. Mills, fully explained in his " Poverty 
 and the State " nine years ago. 
 
 A few years before his much-lamented death, that 
 acute yet cautious thinker, the late Professor Huxley, 
 was forced to adopt the conclusions of Professor Caimes, 
 and those here set forth, that our modern system of land- 
 lordism and capitalistic competition tends to increase 
 rather than to diminish poverty; and he expressed them 
 in one of those forcible passages which cannot be too 
 often quoted. After declaring that in all great indus- 
 trial centres there is a large and increasing mass of what 
 the French call la miser e, he goes on: 
 
 "It is a condition in which food, warmth, and clothing, 
 which are necessary for the mere maintenance of the 
 functions of the body in their normal state, cannot be 
 obtained ; in which men, women, and children are forced 
 to crowd into dens where decency is abolished, and the 
 most ordinary conditions of healthful existence are im- 
 possible of attainment; in which the pleasures within 
 reach are reduced to brutality and drunkenness; in 
 which the pains accumulate at compound interest in the 
 shape of starvation, disease, stunted development, and 
 moral degradation ; in which the prospect of even steady 
 and honest industry is a life of unsuccessful battling with 
 hunger, rounded by a pauper's grave. . . When the 
 organization of society, instead of mitigating this tend- 
 ency, tends to continue and intensify it, when a given 
 social order plainly makes for evil and not for good, men 
 naturally enough begin to think it high time to try a 
 fresh experiment. I take it to be a mere plain truth that 
 throughout industrial Europe there is not a single large 
 manufacturing city which is free from a large mass of 
 
360 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 CHAP. ZX. 
 
 people whose condition is exactly that described, and 
 from a still greater mass who, living just on the edge of 
 the social swamp, are liable to be precipitated into it." * 
 
 But there are yet other indications of our terribly un- 
 healthy social condition besides poverty, misery, and pre- 
 ventable deaths. The first is the increase of insanity, 
 which is certainly great, though not perhajDs so large as 
 the mere increase of the insane population. This in- 
 crease from 1859 to 1889 was from 1867 per million in 
 the fonner year to 2907 per million in the latter, or more 
 than 50 per cent, faster than the population. But it is 
 alleged that this is mainly due to the accumulation of 
 patients, owing to their being better taken care of than 
 formerly. This, howeA-er, is only a supposition, and an 
 improbable one, since it is admitted that in our crowded 
 asylums proper curative treatment is impossible; and 
 the returns of the Registrar-General show that deaths in 
 lunatic asylums are increasing faster than the number 
 of lunatics. (In the seven years 1888 to 1895 the deaths 
 increased 25 per cent.) And in " Chambers' Encyclo- 
 psedia," the writer who gives the above explanation also 
 shows immediately afterward that it only accounts for 
 the smaller portion of the increase. He says that, if we 
 take the newly registered cases each year, " we find they 
 have only risen from 4.5 to 6 per 10,000 (or from 450 to 
 600 per million) in the thirty years." Biit this is 30 per 
 cent, faster than the population increases; and it may 
 therefore be taken as the admitted amount of the con- 
 tinuous increase of insanity among us. 
 
 Closely connected with insanity is suicide, and that 
 this has very largely increased there is no doubt what- 
 
 • Nineteenth Century, February, 1888. 
 
CHAP. XX. THE DEMON OP GREED. 861 
 
 ever, as the following table, compiled from the Reports 
 of the Registrar-General, will show : 
 
 Deaths by Suicide 
 Years. per Million Living. 
 
 18U6-70. 66.4 
 
 1871-75, 66.0 
 
 1876 80, 73.6 
 
 1881-85 73.8 
 
 1886-90 79.4 
 
 1891-95 88.6 
 
 Dr. S. A. K. Strahan, in his work on " Suicide and In- 
 sanity," states that: "Within certain limits the rate of 
 suicide ebbs and flows with the prosperity -of a nation," 
 and he says that it has been proved by several Continental 
 writers that the death-rate from suicide " rises and falls 
 with the price of bread." The first statement is un- 
 doubtedly true, the latter quite untrue. During the 
 whole period included in the above table the price of 
 wheat was falling from 50s. 9d. in 1859-61 to 32s. IQd. 
 in 1889-91. The price of bread is of no importance 
 when the conditions of life are such that thousands of 
 people have not the means of buying any food at all. 
 Insanity and suicide are both largely due to want, or the 
 dread of want, as the weekly records of coroners' in- 
 quests and the police courts plainly show. 
 
 Yet another indication of the deterioration of the 
 people, owing to the unhealthy and unnatural conditions 
 under which millions of them are compelled to live, is 
 afforded by the continuous increase for the last thirty- 
 five years of premature births, and of congenital defects 
 in those who survive. The following table showing 
 the proportion to 1000 births, is from the Fifty-eighth 
 Annual Report of the Registrar-General, p. xviii. : 
 
362 
 
 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 CHAt. IX 
 
 Years. 
 
 Premature Bibth3. 
 
 Congenital Defects. 
 
 1861-65, 
 
 11.19 
 
 1.76 
 
 1866-70, 
 
 11.50 
 
 1.84 
 
 1871-75, 
 
 12.60 
 
 1.85 
 
 1876-80, 
 
 13.38 
 
 2.39 
 
 1881-85, 
 
 14.18 
 
 3.23 
 
 1886-90, 
 
 16.15 
 
 3.39 
 
 1891-95, 
 
 18.42 
 
 3 87 
 
 The worst features of this table are the continuous in- 
 crease it shows, indicating the action of some constant 
 and increasing cause, and the more rapid increase in the 
 latter half of the period, indicating that the conditions 
 are becoming increasingly worse and worse. 
 
 It is the common belief that intemperance has greatly 
 decreased among tis, and no doubt that is the case as 
 compared with the early part of the century. But as 
 regards chronic intemperance resulting in death, the 
 Registrar-General's figures show us that for the last 
 thirty years it has been increasing: 
 
 Years. 
 
 1861-65, 
 
 1866-70, 
 
 1871-75, 
 
 1876-80, 
 
 1881-85, 
 
 1886-90, 
 
 1891-95, 
 
 Males. 
 
 Femakt. 
 
 . 60 1 . 
 
 .24 . . 
 
 66.6 . 
 
 .31 . . 
 
 . 73.6 . 
 
 . 39.2 . 
 
 86.6 . 
 
 . 50.2 . 
 
 Deaths from Alcoholism 
 AND Deliricm Tremens 
 PER Million Living. 
 41.6 
 35 4 
 37.6 
 42.2 
 48.0 
 55.4 
 68.2 
 
 Here the increase began a little later, but it shows the 
 same alarming fact of being much more rapid in the last 
 fifteen years. For the last twenty years the deaths are 
 given for males and females separately, and we find that 
 the death-rates of the latter from this cause have in- 
 
CHAP. XX. THE DEMON OF GREED. 363 
 
 creased with enormous rapidity. "While men's deaths 
 from intemperance have increased about 58 per cent, in 
 the twenty years, those of women have increased more 
 than 100 per cent. The causes that lead to this fatal 
 amount of intoxication are various ; but no one will deny 
 that the facts here set forth show the existence of some- 
 thing seriously wrong in our social conditions, and that 
 the evil is rapidly increasing. 
 
 There is yet one more indication of our deterioration. 
 One of the arguments in favor of national education was 
 that it would certainly decrease crime. Herbert Spen- 
 cer told us that it would not have that effect; that there 
 was nothing in educating the intellect to have any effect 
 on the amount of crime, though it might have an eifect 
 upon its character. And he seems to have been right. 
 Owing to changes in the classification of offenders, in the 
 nature of their punishment, in the criminal law, and in 
 the practice of the Courts, it is not difficult to obtain 
 figures showing a decrease, as is often done by officials 
 who will not readily admit that our systems of punish- 
 ment have no reformatory action. But a gentleman 
 who has had a lifelong experience of prisons and pris- 
 oners, and has made a serious study of the whole subject, 
 arrives at a different conclusion. He tells us that, after 
 a careful examination of all available statistics for the 
 last thirty years, and making all needful corrections for 
 the changes above referred to, he considers it proved that 
 crime has increased, and at a greater rate than the in- 
 crease of the population for the same period. The re- 
 sult, which he thinks to be as near the truth as can 
 be obtained from prison and criminal statistics, is as 
 follows : 
 

 In Reformatories 
 
 
 Prison 
 
 AND Industrial 
 
 
 OPULATION 
 
 ScHOOLa. 
 
 Total. 
 
 127,690 
 
 6,834 
 
 134,524 
 
 154,145 
 
 17,394 
 
 171.539 
 
 170,827 
 
 25,505 
 
 196,333 
 
 364 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 Years. 
 1860-69, 
 1870-79, 
 1880-89, 
 
 Here we have an increase in the average of the first 
 and last ten-year periods amounting to 46 per cent., 
 while the increase of population in the twenty years from 
 1865 to 1885 is a little less than 30 per cent.' 
 
 The writer imputes this result to the continued growth 
 of our great cities, which bring together both criminals 
 and those who are preyed upon, and by association and 
 opportunity foster the growth of a criminal population. 
 To this cause, however, miist be added the increasing 
 severity of the struggle for existence and our cruel and 
 degrading prison system, which together render it almost 
 impossible for first offenders to gain a livelihood by hon- 
 est labor. 
 
 In concluding this brief sketch of the inevitable re- 
 sults of the struggle for existence and for wealth under 
 present social conditions, I call special attention to the 
 fact that so many converging lines of evidence point in 
 the same direction. The evidence for the enormous in- 
 crease of the total mass of misery and want is over- 
 whelming, while, that it has increased even faster than 
 the increase of population is, to my own mind, almost 
 equally clear. But when we see that insanity and sui- 
 cide, deaths from drink, premature births, congenital 
 defects, and the numbers of criminals have all increased 
 
 ' The Rev. W. D. Morrison, late H. M. Chaplain at Wandsworth 
 Prison, in the Nineteenth Century for June, 1892. 
 
CHAP. XX. THE DEMON OF GREED. 365 
 
 simultaneously, we can hardly help seeing a relation of 
 cause and effect, since the accidental coincidence of so 
 many distinct phenomena is highly improbable, and the 
 first of them — the increase of poverty, combined with 
 dangerous or unhealthy occupations — is admitted to be 
 a true cause, if only a contributory one, of all the rest. 
 
 But there is yet another inference to be drawn from 
 the facts and figures which have been set forth in this 
 chapter. If we turn to the table of death-rates in pub- 
 lic institutions, we find that they not only increase 
 steadily each quinquennium, but that they increase at a 
 more rapid rate in the later than the earlier years. Di- 
 viding the period equally, we find that during the first 
 half the death-rate increased by .21, or rather more than 
 a fifth, while in the second half it increased by .26, or 
 rather more than a fourth. And when we look at the 
 tables showing the amount of suicides, of premature 
 births, of congenital defects, and of deaths from alco- 
 holism, we find that all these also show a much more 
 rapid increase in the latter half, indicating still more 
 clearly the dependence of the latter upon the former. 
 
 Now this portentous phenomenon, of the increasing 
 rate of deterioration of our population, is also seen in the 
 rate of increase of individual wealth. Taking the total 
 annual value assessed to Income Tax as the best available 
 indication of individual wealth at different periods, we 
 find the rate of its increase during three periods of fifteen 
 years each to be as follows: 
 
 Yeabs. Inorbasb op Inoomb-Tax Assebskbnt. 
 
 1850-65 64.6 per cent, increase in 15 years. 
 
 1865-80,' .... 68.6 
 
 1881-96 83.4 
 
306 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xx. 
 
 This is for the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 and it corresponds with that recent increase of wealth in 
 the City of London which was taken by the writer in the 
 City Press to be a gratifying proof of " commercial 
 prosperity." 
 
 Here, then, we have direct confirmation of that " in- 
 crease of want with increase of wealth " which, when 
 propounded as a fundamental fact of modern social sys- 
 tems in Henry George's " Progress and Poverty," was 
 fiercely denied as utterly unfounded and the very oppo- 
 site of the truth. The association of the two phenomena 
 is clearly proved by the facts and figures here given ; and 
 that association is shown to be not a mere coincidence 
 by the fact that not only the increase, but changes in the 
 rate of increase, are strictly associated ; and, yet further, 
 that four sepai-ate indications of deterioration which are 
 partially or wholly, due to poverty, to dread of poverty, 
 or to rapid fluctuations of wealth, also show similar 
 changes in their rate of increase. 
 
 We have seen that, in Huxley's opinion, all the ter- 
 rible social evils which have been briefly summarized in 
 this chapter are due to the existing organization of so- 
 ciety, and that our present social order " makes for 
 evil "; the late Professor Cairnes was of the same opin- 
 ion; Frederick Harrison, in 1886, declared that the con- 
 dition of the actual producers of wealth was then such as 
 to be the condemnation of modem society,^ — yet it has 
 since then been getting worse, and all our great thinkers 
 — prophets or poets — have condemned it.. Carlyle 
 thundered against its iniquities, but with no clear indi- 
 cations of a remedy; Ruskin saw more clearly that a 
 ' See Report of the Industrial RemuDeration Conference, p. 429. 
 
CBAP.ss. THE DEMON OF GREED. S67 
 
 fundamental change in our methods was necessary, and 
 stated clearly, and I believe truly, what the first essen- 
 tial steps of that change must be/ Tennyson asks us 
 
 " Is it well that while we range witli Science, glorying in the Time, 
 City children soak and blacken soul and sense in city Slime? " 
 
 John Stuart Mill long since warned us that when great 
 evils are in question small remedies do not produce a 
 small effect, but no effect at all. And Lowell says the 
 same in his exquisite verse: 
 
 " New occasions teach new duties : Time makes ancient good 
 
 uncouth ; 
 They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of 
 
 Truth; 
 Lo! before us gleam her camp fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims 
 
 be: 
 Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate 
 
 winter sea. 
 Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted 
 
 key." 
 
 Yet this is exactly what we have been doing during 
 the whole century, — applying small plasters to each 
 social ulcer as it became revealed to us — petty pallia- 
 tives for chronic evils. But ever as one symptom has 
 been got rid of new diseases have appeared, or the old 
 have burst out elsewhere with increased virulence; and 
 it will certainly be considered one of the most terrible 
 and inexplicable failures of the nineteenth century that, 
 up to its very close, neither legislators nor politicians of 
 either of the great parties that alternately ruled the 
 nation would acknowledge that there could be anything 
 really wrong while wealth increased as it was increasing. 
 
 ' See " Uuto this Last." Preface. 
 
368 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. ix. 
 
 Our ruling classes have suggested nothing, and have 
 done nothing, of any real use. They have made fruit- 
 less enquiries into particular phases of the evils that were 
 oppressing the workers, and have continued the applica- 
 tion of those small remedies that always have resulted, 
 and always must result, in no permanent benefit to the 
 whole people. They still believe that "the Past's 
 blood-rusted key " will open the portal of future well- 
 being! ^ 
 
 ' It Is never my practice to condemn evils -without suggesting 
 remedies. But in this work it would be out of place to go into them 
 In detail. I give, however, a few suggestions and references in an 
 Appendix to this volume. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE PLUNDER OF THE EAETH CONCLUSION. 
 
 Commerce has set the mark of selfishness, 
 The signet of its all-enslaving power, 
 Upon a shining ore, and called it Gold; 
 Before whose image bow the vulgar great. 
 The vainly rich, the miserable proud, 
 The mob of peasants, nobles, priests, and kings, 
 And with blind feelings reverence the power 
 That grinds them to the dust of misery. 
 
 — Shelley. 
 
 The struggle for wealth, and its deplorable results, as 
 sketched in the preceding chapter, have been accompa- 
 nied by a reckless destruction of the stored-up products of 
 nature, which is even more deplorable because more irre- 
 trievable. Not only have forest-growths of many hun- 
 dreds of years been cleared away, often with disastrous 
 consequences, but the whole of the mineral treasures of 
 the earth's surface, the slow products of long-past eons 
 of time and geological change, have been and are still 
 being exhausted, to an extent never before approached, 
 and probably not equalled in amount during the whole 
 preceding period of human history. 
 
 In our own country, the value of the coal exported to 
 foreign countries has increased from about three to more 
 than sixteen millions sterling per annum, the quantity 
 being now about thirty millions of tons; and this con- 
 tinuous exhaustion of one of the necessaries of existence 
 is wholly in the interest of landlords and capitalists^ 
 
370 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xm. 
 
 while millions of our people have not sufficient for the 
 ordinary needs or comforts of life, and even die in large 
 numbers for want of the vital warmth which it would 
 supply. Another large quantity of coal is consumed in 
 the manufacture of iron for export, which amounts 
 n6w to about two millions of tons per annum. A 
 rational organization of society would ensure an ample 
 supply of coal to every family in the country before per- 
 mitting any export whatever; while, if our social organi- 
 zation was both moral and rational, two considerations 
 would prevent any export: the first being that we have 
 duties toward posterity, and have no right to diminish 
 unnecessarily those natural products which cannot be 
 reproduced ; and the second, that the operations of coal- 
 mining and iron-working being especially hard and un- 
 pleasant to the workers, and at the same time leading to 
 injury to much fertile land and natural beauty, they 
 should be restricted within the narrowest limits consist- 
 ent with om- own well-being. 
 
 In America, and some other countries, an equally 
 wasteful and needless expenditure of petroleum oils and 
 natural gas is going on, resulting in great accumulations 
 of private wealth, but not sensibly ameliorating the con- 
 dition of the people at large. Such an excellent light 
 as that afforded by petroleum oil is no doubt a good 
 thing; but it comes in the second grade, as a comfort, not 
 a necessity ; and it is really out of place till everyone can 
 obtain ample food, clothing, warmth, house room, and 
 pure air and water, which are the absolute necessaries of 
 life, but which, under the conditions of our modern 
 civilization — more correctly barbarism — millions of 
 people, through no fault of their own, cannot obtain. In 
 
CONCLUSION. 371 
 
 these respects we are as the Scribes and Pharisees, giv- 
 ing tithe of mint and cummin, but neglecting the 
 weightier matters of the law. 
 
 Equally disastrous in many respects has been the wild 
 struggle for gold in California, Australia, South Africa, 
 and elsewhere. The results are hardly less disastrous, 
 though in different ways, than those produced by the 
 Spaniards in Mexico and Peru four centuries ago. 
 Great wealth has been obtained, great populations have 
 grown up and are growing up ; but great cities have also 
 grown up with their inevitable poverty, vice, overcrowd- 
 ing, and even starvation, as in the Old World. Every- 
 where, too, this rush for wealth has led to deterioration 
 of land and of natural beauty, by covering up the sur- 
 face with refuse heaps, by flooding rich lowlands with 
 the barren mud produced by hydraulic mining; and by 
 the great demand for animal food by the mining popula- 
 tions leading to the destruction of natural pastures in 
 California, Australia, and South Africa, and their re- 
 placement often by weeds and plants neither beautiful 
 nor good for fodder. 
 
 It is also a well-known fact that these accumulations 
 of gold-seekers lead to enormous social evils, opening a 
 field for criminals of every type, and producing an 
 amount of drink-consumption, gambling, and homicide 
 altogether unprecedented. Both the earlier gold-dig- 
 ging by individual miners, and the later quartz-mining 
 by great companies, are alike forms of gambling or 
 speculation; and while immense fortunes are made by 
 some, others suffer great losses, so that the gambling spirit 
 is still further encouraged and the production of real 
 wealth by patient industry, to the same extent dimin- 
 
372 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xxi. 
 
 ished and rendered less attractive. For it must never 
 be forgotten that the whole enormous amount of human 
 labor expended in the search for and the production of 
 gold; the ships which carry out the thousands of ex- 
 plorers, diggers, and speculators; the tools, implements, 
 and machinery they use; their houses, food, and cloth- 
 ing, as well as the countless gallons of liquor of various 
 qualities which they consume, are all, so far as the well- 
 being of the community is concerned, absolutely wasted. 
 Gold is not wealth ; it is neither a necessary nor a luxury 
 of life, in the tnie sense of the word. It serves two pur- 
 poses only: it is an instrument used for the exchange of 
 commodities, and its use in the arts is mainly as orna- 
 ment or as an indication of wealth. Nothing is more 
 certain than that the appearance of wealth produced by 
 large gold-production is delusive. The larger the pro- 
 portion of the population of a country that devotes 
 itself to gold-production, the smaller the numbers left to 
 produce real wealth — food, clothing, houses, fuel, roads, 
 machinery, and all the innumerable conveniences, com- 
 forts, and wholesome luxuries of life. Hence, whatever 
 appearances may indicate, gold-production makes a coun- 
 try poor, and by furnishing new means of investment 
 and speculation helps to keep it poor; and it has cer- 
 tainly helped considerably in producing that amount of 
 wretchedness, stan'ation, and crime which, as we have 
 seen, has gone on increasing to the very end of our 
 century. 
 
 But the extraction of the mineral products stored in 
 the earth, in order to increase individual wealth, and to 
 the same extent to the diminution of national well-being, 
 is onl^y a portiou of the injury done to posterity by the 
 
CONCLUSION. 373 
 
 " plunder of the eartli." In tropical countries many 
 valuable products can be cultivated by means of cheap 
 native labor, so as to give a large profit to the European 
 planter. But here also the desire to get rich as quickly 
 as possible has often defeated the planter's hopes. Nut- 
 megs were grown for some years in Singapore and Pe- 
 nang; but by the exposure of the young trees to the sun, 
 instead of growing them under the shade of great forest- 
 trees, as in their natural state, and as they are grown in 
 Banda, they became unhealthy and unprofitable. Then 
 coffee was planted, and was grown very largely in Cey- 
 lon and other places; but here again the virgin forests 
 were entirely removed, producing unnatural conditions, 
 and the growth of the young trees was stimulated by 
 manure. Soon there came disease and insect enemies, 
 and coffee had to be given up in favor of tea, which is 
 now grown over large areas both in Ceylon and India. 
 But the clearing of the forests on steep hill slopes, to 
 make coffee plantations, produced permanent injury to 
 the country of a very serious kind. The rich soil, the 
 product of thousands of years of slow decomposition of 
 the rock, fertilized by the humus formed from decaying 
 forest trees, being no longer protected by the covering 
 of dense vegetation, was quickly washed away by the 
 tropical rains, leaving great areas of bare rock or fur- 
 rowed clay, absolutely sterile, and which will probably 
 not regain its former fertility for hundreds, perhaps 
 thousands of years. The devastation caused by the 
 great despots of the Middle Ages and of antiquity, for 
 purposes of conquest or punishment, has thus been 
 reproduced in our times by the rush to obtain wealth. 
 Even the lust of conquest, in order to secure slaves 
 
374 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xxi. 
 
 and tribute and great estates, by means of which the 
 ruling classes could live in boundless luxury, so charac- 
 teristic of the early civilizations, is reproduced in our 
 own time. The Great Powers of Europe are in the midst 
 of a struggle, in order to divide uj? the whole continent 
 of Africa among themselves, and thus obtain an outlet 
 for the more energetic portions of their populations and 
 an extension of their trade. The result, so far, has been 
 the sale of vast quantities of rum and gunpowder; much 
 bloodshed, owing to the objection of the natives to the 
 seizure of their lands and their cattle; great demoraliza- 
 tions both of black and white; and the condemnation of 
 the conquered tribes to a modified form of slavery. 
 Compaiing our conduct with that of the Spanish con- 
 querors of the West Indies, Mexico, and Peru, and mak- 
 ing some allowance for differences of race and of public 
 opinion, there is not much to choose between them. 
 Wealth, and territory, and native labor, were the real 
 objects of the conquest in both cases; and if the Span- 
 iards were more cruel by nature, and more reckless in 
 theu' methods, the resulta were much the same. In both 
 cases the country was conquered, and thereafter occu- 
 pied and governed by the conquerors frankly for their 
 own ends, and with little regard to the feelings or the 
 material well-being of the conquered. If the Spaniards 
 exterminated the natives of the West Indies, we have 
 done the same thing in Tasmania, and almost the same 
 in temperate Australia. And in the estimation of the 
 historian of the future, the Spaniards will be credited 
 with two points in which they suqiassed us. Their be- 
 lief that they were really serving God in converting the 
 heathen, even at the point of the sword, was a genuine 
 
CHAP. XXI. CONCLUSION. 375 
 
 . . — ■ — ■ _i 
 
 belief shared by priests and conquerors alike — not a 
 mere sliani, as is ours when m'c defend our conduct by the 
 plea of introducing the " blessings of civilization." 
 And, in wild romance, boldness of conception, reckless 
 daring, and the successful achievement of the well-nigh 
 impossible, we are nowhere when compared with Cortez 
 and his five hundred Spaniards, who, with no base of 
 supplies, no rapid steam communication, no supports, 
 imperfect weapons and the ammunition they carried 
 with them, conquered great, populous, and civilized em- 
 pires. It is quite possible that both the conquests of 
 Mexico and Peru by the Spaniards, and our conquests of 
 South Africa, may have been real steps in advance, 
 essential to human progress, and helping on the future 
 reign of true civilization and the well-being of the hu- 
 man race. But if so, we have been, and are, uncon- 
 scious agents, in hastening the great 
 
 " far-off, divine event 
 To wliich tlie wliole creation moves." 
 
 We deserve no credit for it. Our aims have been, for 
 the most part, sordid and selfish; and if, in the end, all 
 should work out for good, as no doubt it will, much of 
 our conduct in the matter will yet deserve, and will cer- 
 tainly receive, the severest condemnation. 
 
 Our whole dealings with subject races have been a 
 strange mixture of good and evil, of success and failure, 
 due, I believe, to the fact that, along with a genuine de- 
 sire to do good and to govern well, our nile has always 
 been largely influenced, and often entirely directed, by 
 the necessity of finding well-paid places for the less 
 wealthy members of our aristocracy, and also by the 
 
376 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chap. xxi. 
 
 constant craving for fresh markets by tlie influential 
 class of merchants and manufacturers. Hence the enor- 
 mous fiscal burdens under which the natives of our In- 
 dian Empire continue to groan; hence the opium 
 monopoly and the salt tax; hence the continxied refusal 
 to carry out the promises made or implied on the estab- 
 lishment of the Empire, to give the natives a continually 
 increasing share in their own government, and to govern 
 India solely in the interest of the Indians themselves. 
 
 It is the influence of the two classes above referred to 
 that has urged our governments to perpetual frontier 
 wars and continual extensions of the Empire, all adding 
 to the burdens of the Indian people. But our greatest 
 mistakes of all are, the collection of revenue in money, 
 at fixed times, from the very poorest cultivators of the 
 soil; and the strict enforcement of our laws relating to 
 landed property, to loans, mortgages, and foreclosures, 
 which are utterly unsuited to the people, and have led 
 to the most cruel oppression, and the transfer of num- 
 bers of small farms from the ryots to the money-lenders. 
 Hence, the peasants become poorer and poorer; thou- 
 sands have been made tenants instead of owners of their 
 farms ; and an immense number are in the chitches of the 
 money-lenders, and always in the most extreme poverty. 
 It is from these various causes that the periodical 
 famines are so dreadful a scourge, and such a disgrace to 
 our rule.^ The people of India are industrious, patient, 
 
 ' These facts, together with our most cruel and wicked robbery of 
 the rayats, or cultivators, constituting three-fourths of the entire 
 population, by changing the land-tax to a rack-rent as exorbitant and 
 impossible of payment as those of the worst Irish and Highland 
 landlords, have been long known, and have been again and again 
 urged by the most experienced Indian administrators as the fuuda- 
 
CONCLUSION. 377 
 
 and frugal in the highest degree ; and the soil and climate 
 are such that the one thing wanted to ensure good crops 
 and abundance of food is water-storage for irrigation, 
 and absolute permanence of tenure for the cultivator. 
 That we have built costlj' railways for the benefit of 
 merchants and capitalists, and have spent upon these and 
 upon frontier-ware the money which would have secured 
 water for irrigation wherever wanted, and thus pre- 
 vented the continued recurrence of famine whenever the 
 rains are deficient, is an evil attendant on our rule which 
 outweighs many of its benefits. 
 
 The final and absolute test of good government is the 
 well-being and contentment of the people — not the ex- 
 tent of empire or the abundance of the revenue and the 
 trade. Tried by this test, how seldom have we suc- 
 ceeded in ruling subject peoples! Rebellion, recurrent 
 famines, and plagues in India ; discontent, chronic want, 
 and misery; famines more or less severe, and continuous 
 depopulation in our sister-island at home — these must 
 surely be reckoned the most terrible and most disastrous 
 failures of the nineteenth century. 
 
 " Hear then, ye Senates! liear this truth sublime: 
 They who allow Oppression share the crime." 
 
 mental cause of all Indian (as they are of all Irish) famines. But, 
 quite recently, they have been again described, with admirable lucid- 
 ity and almost unnecessary moderation, by Sir William Wedderburn, 
 whose great experience in India as a District Judge, and long study 
 of the subject, constitute him one of the first authorities. See a series 
 of articles in the periodical India for February, March, May, and 
 June, 1897. A reprint of the whole under the very appropriate 
 title, "The Skeleton at the [Jubilee] Feast," has been sent to all 
 members of the House of Commons; and they should be read by 
 everyone who wishes to comprehend the terrible misgovernment of 
 our Indian Empire. 
 
378 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 Concluding Remarks. 
 
 We are now in a position to form some general esti- 
 mate of progress and retrogression during the nineteenth 
 century, and to realize to some extent what will be the 
 verdict of the future upon it. We have seen that it has 
 been characterized by a mar\'elloiis and altogether un- 
 precedented progress in knowledge of the universe and 
 of its complex forces; and also in the application of that 
 knowledge to an infinite variety of purposes, calculated, 
 if properly utilized, to supply all the wants of every hu- 
 man being, and to add greatly to the comforts, the enjoy- 
 ments, and the refinements of life. The bounds of 
 human knowledge have been so far extended that new 
 vistas have opened to us in directions where it had been 
 thought that we could never penetrate, and the more we 
 learn the more we seem capable of learning in the ever- 
 widening expanse of the universe. It may be truly said 
 of men of science that they have now become as gods 
 knowing good and evil; since they have been able not 
 only to utilize the most recondite powers of nature in 
 their service, but have in many cases been able to dis- 
 cover the sources of much of the evil that afflicts hu- 
 manity, to abolish pain, to lengthen life, and to add 
 immensely to the intellectual as well as to the physical 
 enjoyments of our race. 
 
 But the more we realize the vast possibilities of hu- 
 man welfare which science has given us, the more we 
 must recognize our total failure to make any adequate 
 use of them. With ample power to supply to the fullest 
 extent necessaries, comforts, and even luxuries for all, 
 and at the same time allow ample leisure for intellectual 
 
OHAP. XXI. CONCLUSION. 379 
 
 pleasures and sestlietic enjoyments, we have yet so sin- 
 fully mismanaged our social economy as to give unprec- 
 edented and injurious luxurj' to the few, while millions 
 are compelled to suffer a lifelong deficiency of the barest 
 necessaries for a healthy existence. Instead of devot- 
 ing the highest powers of our greatest men to remedy 
 these evils, we see the governments of the most advanced 
 nations arming their people to the teeth, and expending 
 much of their wealth and all the resources of their 
 science, in preparation for the destruction of life, of 
 property, and of happiness. 
 
 TVith ample knowledge of the sources of health, we 
 allow, and even compel, the bulk of our population to 
 live and work under conditions which greatly shorten 
 life; while every year we see from 50,000 to 100,000 in- 
 fants done to death by our criminal neglect. 
 
 In our mad race for wealth, we have made gold more 
 sacred than human life; we have made life so hard for 
 the many that suicide and insanity and crime are alike 
 increasing. With all our labor-saving machinery and 
 all our command over the forces of nature, the struggle 
 for existence has become more fierce than ever before; 
 and year by year an ever-increasing proportion of our 
 people sink into paupers' graves. 
 
 Even more degrading, and more terrible in its conse- 
 quences, is the unblushing selfishness of the greatest 
 civilized nations. While boasting of their military 
 power, and loudly proclaiming their Christianity, not 
 one of them has raised a finger to save a Christian people, 
 the remnant of an ancient civilization, from the most 
 bai'barous persecution, torture, and wholesale massacre. 
 A hundred thousand Armenians murdered or starved to 
 
380 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. chai.. xxi. 
 
 death while the representatives of the Great Powers 
 coldly looked on — and prided themselves on their una- 
 nimity in all making the same useless protests — will 
 surely be refeired to by the historian of the future, as 
 the most detestable combination of hypocrisy and in- 
 humanity that the world has yet produced, and as the 
 crowning proof of the utter rottenness of the boasted 
 civilization of the nineteenth century. 
 
 When the brightness of future ages shall have 
 dimmed the glamour of our material progress, the judg- 
 ment of history will surely be that the ethical standard 
 of our rulei-s was a deplorably low one, and that we were 
 unworthy to possess the great and beneficent powers 
 that science had placed in our hands. 
 
 But although this century has given us so many- 
 examples of failure, it has also given us hope for 
 the future. True humanity, the determination that the 
 crying social evils of our time shall not continue; the 
 certainty that they can be abolished; an unwavering 
 faith in human nature, have never been so strong, so 
 vigorous, so rapidly growing as they are to-day. The 
 movement toward socialism during the last ten years, in 
 all the chief countries of Europe as well as in America, 
 is the proof of this. This movement pervades the ris- 
 ing generation, as much in the higher and best educated 
 section of the middle class as in the ranks of the 
 workers. 
 
 The people are being educated to imderstand the real 
 causes of the social evils that now injure all classes alike, 
 and render many of the advances of science curses in- 
 stead of blessings. An equal rate of such educational 
 progress for another quarter of a century will give them 
 
6HAP. s»i. CONCLUSION. 881 
 
 at once the power and the knowledge required to initiate 
 the needed reforms. 
 
 The flowing tide is with us. We have great poets, 
 great writers, great thinkers, to cheer and guide us; and 
 an ever-increasing band of earnest workers to spread the 
 light and help on the good time coming. And as this 
 century has witnessed a material and intellectual ad- 
 vance wholly unprecedented in the history of human 
 progress, so the coming century will reap the full frui- 
 tion of that advance, in a moral and social upheaval of an 
 equally new and unprecedented kind, and equally great 
 in amoimt. That advance is prefigured in the stirring 
 lines of Sir Lewis Morris, with which I may fitly close 
 my work: 
 
 " Ther^ shall come, from out this noise of strife and groaning, 
 
 A broader and a juster brotherhood, 
 A deep equality of aim, postponing 
 
 All selfish seeking to the general good. 
 There shall come a time when each shall to another, 
 Be as Christ would have him, brother unto brother. 
 
 " There shall come a time when brotherhood grows stronger 
 Than the narrow bounds which now distract the world; 
 
 When the cannons roar and trumpets blare no longer, 
 And the ironclad rusts and battle-flags are furled; 
 
 When the bars of creed and speech and race, which sever. 
 
 Shall be fused in one humanity forever." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 THE REMEDY FOR WANT IN THE MIDST OF WEALTH. 
 
 The end of Government is to unfold 
 
 The Social into iiarniony, and give 
 
 Complete expreenion to the laboring thought 
 
 Of iiniveraal geniue ; first to feed 
 
 The body, then the mind, and then the heart. 
 
 — T. L. Harris. 
 
 New Times demand new measures and new men ; 
 The world advances, and in time outgrows 
 The laws that in our fathers' days were beet. 
 
 —Lowell. 
 
 The experience of the whole century, and more especially of the 
 latter half of it, ha.5 fully established tlie fact that, under our present 
 competitive sy.stein of capitalistic prodticlion and distrihution, the 
 continuous increase of wealth in the possession of the capitalist and 
 land-owning classes is not accompanied hy any corresponding dim- 
 inution in the severity of misery and want or in the numbers of those 
 who sufEer from extreme poverty, rendered more unendurable by 
 the presence of the most lavish waste and luxury on every side of 
 them. Even the most cautious writers who really look at the fads 
 are compelled to adinit .so much as this; but, as I have shown, the 
 actual facts prove more than this. They show clearly that with the 
 increase of wealth there has been a positive and very large increase 
 of want; while, if we take account of all the facts, and without 
 prejudice or prepossession consider what they really imply, we are 
 driven to the conclusion that, during the latter half of this most 
 marvellous of all the centuries, while .science has been enlarging 
 man's power over nature in a hundred varied ways, resulting in 
 possibilities of wealth-production a hundredfold that of any preced- 
 ing century, the direst want of the bare necessaries of life has seized 
 upon, not only a greater absolute number, but a larger proportion 
 of our population; and this has happened notwithstanding an 
 increase of charity and benevolent work among the poor which is 
 equally unexampled. 
 
 Many of our greatest writers and clearest thinkers have observed 
 
THE REMEDY FOR WANT. 883 
 
 these facts, and have plainly declared that our social system has 
 broken down. The number of those who see this is increasing 
 daily; and the public conscience is being aroused by the heart-rend- 
 ing misery and suffering of millions of those who work, or beg to be 
 allowed to work, in order to produce comforts and luxuries for 
 others while living in poverty, hunger, and dirt themselves. I take 
 it for granted that we shall not much longer permit this social hell 
 to surround us on every side without making some strenuous efforts 
 to abolish it. To do this with the slightest chance of success we 
 must recognize the absolute inefficiency of the old methods of charity 
 and other small ameliorations, except as admittedly temporary 
 measures; and we must devote ourselves to work on new lines, 
 which must be fundamental in their nature and calculated to remove 
 the causes of poverty. 
 
 I have myself indicated those lines in an address to the Land 
 Nationalization Society in 1895, reprinted with alterations and addi- 
 tion in "Forecasts of the Coming Century," of which it forms the 
 first article, under the title " Reoccupation of the Land." The prin- 
 ciple is, briefly, the Organization of Labor, in Production, /or the 
 GonsumpHon of the Laborers. Nobody has attempted, seriously, to 
 show why this should not be done. Even if the land and stock nec- 
 essary to start each such co-operative colony were given free, it 
 would be the wisest and most profitable public expenditure ever 
 made, because it is certain to abolish all unmerited poverty, by ab- 
 sorbing all tlie unemployed. I have shown by sufficient examples 
 the enormous economies of such organization of labor — economies so 
 great and acting in so many directions that, they are quite certain to 
 result, not only in a subsistence for the workers, but in an abundance 
 of all the necessaries, comforts, and rational enjoyments of life. 
 
 Just consider for a moment. The workers of the country, very 
 imperfectly organized by the capitalists in their own interests, do 
 actually produce every year all the wealth that is consumed, includ- 
 ing not only necessaries and comforts, but an enormous quantity of 
 luxuries, consumed only by the wealthy. All these workers, when 
 in full work, do earn enough to live on, and many of them to live 
 comfortably, although they are paid less than half, often only a 
 quarter of the value of their work in the finished article. It is only 
 because the value they add to the product is many times more than 
 the wages they receive that there is a surplus sufficient to give a 
 profit to the capitalist-manufacturer and to two or three middlemen, 
 to pay for railway carriage, for travellers, and for advertisements, as 
 well as for loss upon unsalable goods. All these expenses would be 
 
884 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 saved when almost eveiytliing was made to be consumed on the spot 
 hy the producers themselves, onlj' a few surplus products being sold 
 in the nearest market to pay for some foreign luxuries. How could 
 such an organization fail to succeed? If it is said that the unem- 
 ployed are not first-rate workmen, we reply, second or even third- 
 rate men will do very well. Average mechanics— carpenters, masons, 
 plumbers, tanners, tailors, shoemakers, spinners, weavers, agricul- 
 tural laborers, etc.— will be able to build second-class houses, make 
 second-class clothing, and produce plain food. Again, why not? 
 If every kind of trade and manufacture can be carried on and well 
 managed by public companies, whose shareholders know nothing of 
 the busine.ss. why not by the local authorities? Every company has 
 to compete with other companies and with great capitalists in the 
 sale of its products. Here there would be no competition, as the 
 great bulk of the products would be consumed by the producers 
 themselves, and in some cases exchanged for the products of other 
 similar settlements when it is found to be beneficial to do so. Why, 
 then, is this not done? Why is it nowhere attempted? There is 
 really only one answer. Manufacturers and capitalists are afraid it 
 would auceeed. Tliey know, in fact, that it would only succeed too 
 well; that it would render those who are now unemployed self-sup- 
 porting; and, by abolishing the spur of starvation, or the dread of 
 starvation, would raise wages all round. Hence, so long as we have 
 capitalist governments, and the workers are so blind as to send man- 
 ufacturers and capitalists and lawyers to misrepresent them in Parlia- 
 ment, a really effective remedy will not be tried. 
 
 But will advanced thinkers and the educated workers continue 
 much longer to permit myriads to suffer penury that a few may get 
 rich? for that is really what it comes to. The mere consideration 
 that the powers of production are now practically unlimited, and 
 that not only enough for every human being, but far more than 
 could possibly be consumed, can be produced by the machinery and 
 labor now in existence, shows how cruel and unnecessary is the sys- 
 tem that condemns so many men and women and children either to 
 long hours of grinding labor or to idleness and its attendant want and 
 misery. 
 
 The ingenious sophistries of modern writers, from the point of view 
 of tlie competitive and capitalistic system as an absolute fundamental 
 fact, have rendered it difficult for most people to comprehend the 
 reason of the paradox, that with an enormous increase of wealth and 
 of power of producing all commodities there should be a correspond- 
 ing perpetuation, or even increase, of poverty. We owe it to an 
 
THE REMEDY FOR WANT. 385 
 
 American writer to bave cleared up this difflculty more completely 
 and more intelligently than has ever been done before; and I strongly 
 recommend those who wish to understand how it is that our capital- 
 istic individualism necessarily produces and perpetuates poverty, to 
 read chapter xxii. of Mr. Edward Bellamy's new book " Equality," 
 entitled " Economic Suicide of the Profit System." Although the 
 form of this chapter is not perhaps the best, being that of a school 
 examination, it is, nevertheless, au admirably reasoned discussion of 
 the problem, and is, in my judgment, absolutely conclusive. Chap- 
 ter xxvi. extends the discussion to the effects of foreign trade, both 
 free and protectionist; and shows that under our capitalist and com- 
 petitive system this only furtlier intensifies the evil as regards the 
 poverty of the masses. Another chapter (xxiii.), entitled "The 
 Parable of the Water Tank," is an amusing illustration of the absurd- 
 ity of our system, in which a superabundance of all the necessaries 
 of Jife, produced by the labor of the people, actually increases the 
 want and starvation of the same people! 
 
 Seeing, then, that the actual facts of the case, at the end of our 
 century of ever-increasing capacity of wealth production, are in com- 
 plete accordance with its necessary results logically reasoned out from 
 the premises of competitive capitalism, we are bound as rational be- 
 ings to get rid of this system with as little disturbance as possible, 
 and, therefore, by some process of evolution; but, nevertheless, in 
 such a way as at once to remedy its most cruel and disgraceful 
 effects. The method I have suggested is one of the least revolution- 
 ary, while it is both the easiest and the most effective; and, during 
 its gradual extension, experience will be gained as to the best 
 methods of carrying it out over the whole country. 
 
 Sow to Stop Starvation. 
 
 But, till some such method is demanded by public opinion, and 
 forced upon our legislators, the horrible scandal and crime of men, 
 women, and little children, by thou.sands and millions, living in the 
 most wretched want, dying of actual starvation, or driven to suicide 
 by the dread of it— must be stopped! I will therefore conclude 
 with suggestions for stopping this horror at once; and also foi' 
 obtaining the necessary funds, both for this temporary purpose and 
 to carry out the system of co-operative colonies already referred to. 
 
 The only certain way to abolish starvation, not when it is too late, 
 but in its very earliest stages, is free bread. I imagine the outcry 
 against this—" pauperization! fraud! loafing!" etc., etc. Perhapsso; 
 
386 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 pi'i'Iuips not. But if it must be so, better a hundred loafers than a 
 tliousand starving; and if my main proposal or sometliing equally 
 effective is adopted, the loafers will soon be disposed of. I have 
 thought over this plan of free bread for a couple of years, and I now 
 believe that all the dilliculties may be easily overcome. In the first 
 place, all who want it, all who have not money to buy wholesome 
 food, must be enabled to get this bread with the minimum of trouble. 
 There must be no tests, like those for poor-law relief. A decent 
 home with good furniture and good clothes must be no bar; neither 
 must the possession of money, if that money is required for 
 rent, for coals, or for any other necessaries of life. The bread 
 must be given to prevent injurious penury, not merely to alleviate it. 
 Whenever a man (or woman) is out of work from no fault of his 
 own, however good wages he earns when in work, he must have a 
 claim to bread. The bread is not to be chanty, not poor-relief; but 
 a rightful claim upon society for its neglect to so organize itself tbat 
 all, without exception, who have worked, and are willing to work, 
 or are unable to work, may at the very least have food to support 
 life. 
 
 Now for the mode of obtaining this bread. All local authorities 
 shall be required to prepare bread tickets, duly stamped and num- 
 bered, of a convenient form, with coupons to be detached, each rep- 
 resenting a four-pound loaf. These tickets are to be Issued in suitable 
 quantities to every policeman, to all the clergy of every denomina- 
 tion, to all medical men, and to such other persons as may be willing 
 to undertake their distribution and are considered to be trustworthy. 
 Any person in want of food, on applying to any of these distributors, 
 is to be given a coupon for one loaf (initialled or signed by the giver) 
 without any question whatever. If the person wants more than one loaf, 
 or wishes to have one or more loaves a day for a week or a month, 
 he or she must give name and address. The distributor, or some 
 deputy, will then pay a visit during the day, ascertain the facts, give 
 a suitable number of bread tickets, and, if needful, as in case of sick- 
 ness or delicate health, obtain further relief from charitable persons 
 or from any funds available for the piirpose. 
 
 Now there are only two possible objections to this method of tem- 
 porarily stopping starvation while more permanent measures are 
 preparing. The first is that it would pauperize; the next, that, as 
 wages tend to sink to the minimum for bare subsistence, it would 
 still further lower wages, so that it would then become needful to 
 give coals free, and a little later rent free, till wages were reduced 
 to the Scriptural penny a day, and the whole of the unskilled 
 
THE REMEDY FOR WANT, 387 
 
 workers had to be supported. The first objection is absurd; because 
 the effect of this free bread would be to checli and almost abolish 
 pauperization. It would enable the home to be kept up; it would 
 prevent that cruel mockery of the present poor-law system that the 
 home must be denuded or given up, the children's clothes pawned, 
 all self-respect lost, before relief is given. The second objection, if 
 valid, would be the strongest condemnation of our actual competitive 
 wage-system. But it is not valid. It is the pressure of absolute 
 hunger, of the still more cruel pang of seeing their children pining 
 for want of bread, that makes men and women consent to work for 
 anything they can get, and gives all the power to the sweater's trade. 
 The being able to hold out a week or a month would give strength 
 to the poor half-starved women and children now working their 
 lives out in misery and destitution. It would give them power and 
 time to bargain. In each shop or factory they could combine. They 
 could afford to strike against oppression, which tliey dare not do 
 now, and the result would be a rise, not a fall of wages. But, for 
 some persons, that will be an equal objection; and as no one can tell 
 exactly what would happen except that starvation would be abolished, 
 perhaps it is simpler to ignore all such theoretical and imaginary 
 evils. Let us fli'st stop the starvation, and leave other difHculties to 
 be dealt with as they arise. 
 
 How to get the Funds. — This question ought not to require asking, 
 in a country where there is such enormous accumulated wealth in 
 the hands of individuals that a large part of it is absolutely useless 
 to them, gives tliem no rational pleasure, and is, really and funda- 
 mentally, the cause of the very poverty we seek to abolish. 
 
 There are now in Great Britain sixty-six persons whose incomes 
 from "trades and professions " are £50,000 a year and upward. 
 The total amount of the sixty-six incomes is £5,632,577, so that the 
 surplus, over £50,000 a year each, amounts to £2,332,577 a year. 
 Up to the end of the last century it is probable that no one person in 
 Great Britain had an income of £50,000 a year. It would then have 
 been considered what Dr. Johnson termed "wealth beyond the 
 dreams of avarice," and even to-day it is far beyond what is suf- 
 cient for every luxury which one family ought to have or ought to 
 want. Surely, for the one purpose of giving bbead tu those who 
 need it. to save millions from insufficiency of food culniinnling in 
 absolute starvation, there can be few of these sixty-six who, when 
 appealed to by the humanity, by the intellect, and by the religion of 
 the nation, will refuse to give up this enormous superfluity of wealth 
 to the bread fund, to be taken charge of, perhaps, by the Local Gov- 
 
388 THE AVONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 ernment Board, and administered, on tlie principles here suggested, 
 by tUe local authorities. For tho.se who refuse there will be the 
 scorn and contempt of all good men. In tlie burning words of 
 Scott, 
 
 " Higli though hiB titles, proud his name, 
 Boundlees hiB wealth as wish can claim, 
 DeBpite those titles, power, and pelf. 
 The wretch, concentred all in self, 
 Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 
 And doubly dying, shall go down 
 To the vile dust from whence he sprung. 
 Unwept, nnhonored, and unsung." 
 
 But the above-named amount is only a part, a very small part, of 
 the wealth that is immediately available. There are sitting in the 
 House of Lords sixty peers who hold possession of land producing 
 a rental of over £50,000 a year each. The sum total of these sixty 
 rentals is £5,405,900, .so that the amount of the surplus is £2,405,000 
 a year, and as the average rental is something over a pound an acre, 
 this surplus represents considerably more than two million acres of 
 land. The owners of this surplus land should also be invited to 
 make it over to the nation, to be used, temporaril}', for the bread 
 fund, but ultimately for the establishment of the co-operative col- 
 onies. Surely these sixty noble lords will not refuse, from their 
 great superfluity, to return a portion to the nation, for the use of 
 those workers who give to the land all its rental value! 
 
 But these two surplus revenues, amounting to more than four and 
 a half millions a year, are over and above the enormous revenues 
 derived from the great London estates. Some of these would be 
 wholly available as surplus, since their owners possess incomes of 
 £50,000 a. year from other sources; while, in other cases the total 
 incomes would be brought to a higher amount than £50,000 by the 
 addition of the London property. There is thus available a fund of 
 at least six or seven millions a year, without reducing any rich man's 
 income below £50,000 a year. 
 
 But we should not wish to shut out from this great act of restitu- 
 tion to the nation those persons who possess the comparatively mod- 
 erate wealth of from £10,000 a year upward, who might be invited 
 to contribute 10 per cent., 20 per cent., 30 per cent., or 40 per cent, 
 of their surplus over the same number of thousands in their income; 
 and this would certainly produce another million or two million per 
 annum, as there are over a thousand persons in this class with an 
 average income of about £18,000 per annum. 
 
THE REMEDY FOR WANT. 389 
 
 It is estimated that two pounds of bread a day is a full average for 
 the consumption per head, even if no other food is available. The 
 cost of this at 5d. the four-pound loaf would be £3 16». a year, so 
 that to supply a million people the whole year would require 
 £3,800,000. This might be enough, or there might be a demand of 
 double this; but the very fact of there being so large a want for 
 mere bread would incite to the adoption of permanent means by 
 which all could be rendered at least self-supporting; and for this 
 purpose the two millions of acres of land would be at once available 
 as a beginning. 
 
 It will probably be objected that non^ of these millionaires will 
 give up their surplus wealth, however piteously we may appeal to 
 them in the name of the suffering millions, from whose labor every 
 pound has been derived, and without whose labor they themselves 
 would be reduced to destitution. Perhaps it may be so. But, if so 
 it be, the people will know the characters of those whom they have 
 to deal with, and will be driven to use their power as voters to obtain 
 by the forms of law what they have not been able to obtain by 
 appeals to either the mercy or the justice of these rich men— who, 
 while calling themselves Christians, will not part with their super- 
 fluity of gold and land even to give bread to the poor and needy, and 
 to save widows and the fatherless from misery and starvation. 
 
 The means to do this is plain. They must vote for no candidate 
 who will not promise to support — first, a progressive income-tax on 
 that portion of all incomes above £10,000, rising to 100 per cent. 
 on the surplus above £50,000, as here suggested; and, secondly, to 
 support a corresponding or even larger increase in the death duties. 
 The law now permits a man to disinherit his children, or other legal 
 heirs, whenever he chooses; and, in thus permitting him, recognizes 
 the important principle that no one has an indefeasible claim to suc- 
 ceed to any property whatever! For great public purposes, therefore, 
 the State may justly declare itself the heir to any proportion of the 
 property, or even to the whole property of deceased persons. But 
 the State would at the same time recognize the duty — which the 
 owner of property does not always recognize — of providing for all 
 persons dependent on the deceased, either by means of an ample 
 annuity for those past middle life, or by a suitable education and 
 start in life for younger relatives or dependents, and for children. 
 
 In this way ample funds would be available for the various pur- 
 poses here suggested, without really injuring anyone. These pur- 
 poses — the abolition of starvation, penury, and the degraded life of 
 millions — are the greatest and most important which any govern- 
 
390 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 
 
 ment can undertake, and should, now, constitute its first duty. 
 They are the essential first step to any really effective social ad- 
 vance; and if all earnest reformers of every class would unite their 
 forces, their efforts would soon be crowned with success. I have 
 done what I can to prove the utter breakdown of our present state of 
 social disorganization — a state which causes all the advances in 
 science, and in our command over the forces of nature, to be abso- 
 lutely powerless to check the growth of poverty in our midst. Every 
 attempt to salve or to bide our social ulcers has failed, and must 
 continue to fail, because those ulcers are the necessary product of 
 Competitive Individualism. * 
 
 I therefore call upon all earnest, thinking men and women to 
 devote their energies to advocating tliose more fundamental changes 
 which- both theory and e.xperiencc prove to be needed, and which 
 alone have any chance of success. 
 
 For now— though oft misiaUen, oft rleppairing, 
 
 At last, methiiikB, at last 1 see the dawn; 
 At last, though yft a-faiut, the awakening nations 
 
 Proclaim the pasping of the night forlorn ; 
 Soon shall the long-cimceived child of Time 
 Be bom of Progress— poon the moi;n sublime 
 Shall burst effulgent through the clouds of Earth. 
 And light Time's greatest page— O Right, thy glorious birthl 
 
 —J. B. DM. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Academy of medicine and ani- 
 mal magnetism, 196 
 
 Adams, discovery of Neptune 
 by, 93 
 
 Air, importance of pure, 857 
 
 Alcoholism, increase of deaths 
 from, 362 
 
 Alexis, clairvoyance of, 204 
 
 Alkali works dangerous, 355 
 
 Alloys, properties of, 56 
 
 Amiens, flint implements of, 131 
 
 Anaesthetics, 147 
 
 Animal magnetism discovered by 
 Mesmer, 194 
 report on, 196 
 
 Antiseptic surgery, 148 
 
 Antiquity of man, 130 
 
 Argand lamps, 28 
 
 Armies, enormous modern, 335 
 
 Army and navy, revaccination of 
 useless, 280 
 statistics of small-pox in, 
 281 
 
 Astronomy, discoveries in, 93 
 
 B 
 
 Bacteria, uses of, 146 
 Barometer, when invented, 152 
 Battleships, modern, 334 
 Bavaria, smallpox and vaccina- 
 tion in, 265 
 proves uselessness of vacci- 
 tion, 266 
 Bellamy's " Looking Backward," 
 22 
 
 " Equality," 385 
 Berlin, severe epidemics in, 264 
 Bicycle, speed of, 9 
 
 Biggs, Mr. T., statistics of Leices- 
 ter mortality, 271 
 cross-examination of, 279 
 
 Bills of mortality and dissenters, 
 245 
 
 Birch, John, on failure of vac- 
 cination, 220 
 
 Birmingham and Leicester small- 
 pox, 275 
 
 Births, premature, increase of, 
 362 
 
 Blood, function of white corpus- 
 cles of, 144 
 
 Blue color of sky and ocean, 70 
 
 Bombay, insanitary condition of, 
 339 
 
 Bread, free, suggested, 385 
 
 Britain, glaciation of, 125 
 
 Brodie, Sir B. , on painless opera- 
 tions under mesmerism, 208 
 
 Brown of Musselburgh on small- 
 pox after vaccination in 1809, 
 220 ; 
 
 C 
 
 Cairns, Professor, on necessary 
 results of capitalism, 358 
 
 Calcutta, sanitary report on, 340 
 
 Candles, 28 
 
 in lighthouses, 29 
 
 Carpenter, Dr. W. B., on clair- 
 voyance, 202, 204 
 
 Carriages in Homer's time, 6 
 earliest in England, 6 
 
 Cell theory, 143 
 
 Certificates of death after vacci- 
 nation often erroneous, 229 
 
 Ceylou, destruction of fertility 
 in, 373 
 
 Chariots, Egyptian and British, 
 6 
 
 391 
 
393 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Chawls of Bombay, 339 
 Chemistry, great problems of, 
 86 
 atomic theory of, 87 
 organic, 81 
 Chloroform, deaths from, pre- 
 ventable, 147 
 Churchyards of London in 
 
 eighteenth century, 318 
 City Press on increase of Profit, 
 
 357 
 Christianity of modern govern- 
 ments verbal only, 379 
 Clairvoyance, 198, 300, 204 
 Climate deteriorated by increase 
 
 of dust, 84 
 Cloquet, operation by, during 
 
 mesmeric trance, 206 
 Clouds and rain due to dust, 77 
 Coal, export of, immoral, 369 
 Color photography, 35 
 Combe, George, studies phrenol- 
 ogy, 162 
 his life and character, 164 
 practical tests of phrenology, 
 
 167 
 and Archbishop Whately, 
 173 
 Comets and meteor-streams, 101 
 Commissioners should have been 
 statisticians, 235 
 on decline of small-pox after 
 
 1800, 252 
 on Scotch and Irish small- 
 pox, 355 
 do not use the diagrams, 256 
 why conclusions of vfrong, 
 
 359 
 do not compare small-pox 
 and general mortality, 361 
 illogical reasoning of, 259 
 neglect the method of com- 
 parison, 270, 284 
 on ciise of Leicester, 378 
 on small-pox in Army and 
 
 Navy, 280 
 on treatment of Army and 
 Navy small-pox mortality, 
 287 
 put opinions above faces, 
 294 
 Communication, sketch of prog- 
 ress of, 17 
 
 Comte on no possible knowledge 
 of the stars, 49 
 
 Conclusion, plain speaking justi- 
 fied, 313 
 
 Continental small-pox, teaching 
 of diagrams of, 308 
 
 Convulsionists and uniformitari- 
 ans, 113 
 
 Cosmos, origin of, an insoluble 
 problem, 107 
 
 Cox, Serjeant, on clairvoyance, 
 304 
 
 Creightou, Dr., history of epi- 
 demics, 346 
 on substitution theory, 249 
 on variolous test, 317 
 
 Crime and punishment, 325 
 increase of, 364 
 
 Crookshank, Professor, on Inoc- 
 ulation, 216, 318 
 
 Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, 
 111 
 
 D 
 
 Daguerrotype 32 
 Dalton's atomic theory, 86 
 Dangerous trades, 355 
 Darwin, Dr. Erasmus, predicted 
 
 steam carriages, 7 
 Darwin, Charles, effect of his 
 " Origin of Species," 141 
 his work comparable with 
 Newton's, 143 
 Davidson, Mr., on injurious ef- 
 fects of vaccination, 331 
 Davy, Sir H., discovery of so- 
 dium, 89 
 Death from vaccination, a dread- 
 ful, 333 
 certificates inaccurate, 229 
 Deaths stated to be of the vacci- 
 nated or unvaccinated, why 
 untrustworthy, 304 
 
 in public institutions, 347 
 from alcoholism increasing, 
 362 
 Defects, congenital, increase of, 
 
 363 
 Denudation, 116 
 rate of, 118 
 Development, theory of, 144 
 De Ville, good phrenological test 
 by, m 
 
INDEX. 
 
 393 
 
 Dew, formation of, 78 
 Dewsbury, Leicester, and War- 
 rington small-pox, 377 
 Diphtheria and scarlatina in 
 
 London, 250 
 Diseases, theory of substitution 
 
 of, 249 
 Doctors often misstate figures, 
 
 223 
 Double stars, motion of, deter- 
 mined by spectroscope, 47 
 Drift, glacial, 122 
 Dust, the importance of, 69 
 meteoric in ocean, 76 
 as causing clouds and raiu, 77 
 summary of uses of, 81 
 causes diffused daylight, 81 
 increase of, has affected cli- 
 mate, 84 
 
 E 
 Early evolutionists, 135 
 Earth uninhabitable without 
 dust, 79 
 the plunder of, 369 
 Eighteenth century, few inven- 
 tions in, 151 
 theoretical discoveries in, 153 
 Electric telegraph, 20 
 oceanic, 21 
 lighting, 29 
 Elements, Mendeleef's arrange- 
 ment of, 90 
 Elliotson, Dr., good phrenologi- 
 cal test by, 170 
 on operations during mes- 
 meric trance, 209 
 Energy, conservation of, 52 
 English small-pox, 1838-1895, 
 253 
 teaching of diagram of, 307 
 Erratic blocks, 123 
 Ether and matter, 58 
 European cities, improvement of, 
 
 323 
 Evolution, 135 
 
 Experiments adverse to vaccina- 
 tion, 270 
 
 Failures of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, 159 
 Famine in India, 339 
 
 Parr, Dr., on decrease of infant 
 mortality, 374 
 on improvement of health of 
 London, 1771-1810, 321 
 Ferrier, Prof., on localization of 
 functions of the brain, 183 
 his experiments confirm 
 phrenology, 186 
 Fevers in London, 250 
 "Final Report" valueless and 
 misleading, 288 
 critical remarks on, 288 
 on advantage of revaccina- 
 
 tion, 291 
 hesitating tone of. 293 
 on Army and Navy, 313 
 Fire, the beginning of civiliza- 
 tion, 3 
 probable mode of discovery 
 of, 25 
 Fizeau and Foucault, on velocity 
 
 of light, 61 
 Flint implements near Amiens, 
 
 131 
 Flint and steel, early use of, 35 
 Food of London in eighteenth 
 
 century, 319 
 Forces of the universe offer in- 
 soluble problems, 108 
 Foucault measures velocity of 
 light, 61 
 shows rotation of the earth, 
 64 
 Fox, Mr. C, on 56 cases of ill- 
 ness or death following vacci- 
 nation, 330 
 Free bread to stop starvation, 
 385 
 objections to considered, 386 
 how to get funds for, 387 
 Fur-pullers of South London, 353 
 
 G 
 
 Gall, Dr., discovers phrenology, 
 160 
 
 Gas for lighting, 39 
 
 natural, waste of, 370 
 
 Gases, molecular theory of, 54 
 solidification of, 55 
 
 Gay on state of London in eight- 
 eenth century, 316, 318 
 
 Geology, foundations of, 110 
 
394 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Geometry, early development of, 
 
 154 
 Glacial epoch, 119 
 proofs of, 120 
 striae, height of, 126 
 probable antiquity of, 130 
 Glass-blowing very unhealthy, 
 
 355 
 Gloucester epidemic due to in- 
 
 sauitation, 377 
 Gold, the struggle for, 371 
 
 is not wealth, 372 
 Goldson, William, on small-pox 
 
 after vaccination in 1804, 220 
 Great Western, first ocean steam- 
 ship, 8 
 Great powers, plunder of the 
 
 eartli by, 374 
 Greed, the demon of, 343 
 Gregory, Prof., on clairvoyance, 
 
 201 
 Guy, Dr. , figures alone can prove 
 
 value of vaccination, 235 
 
 H 
 
 Hall, Dr. Marshall, on painless 
 operations under mesmerism, 
 208 
 
 Hamilton, Sir William, an oppo- 
 nent of phrenology, 178 
 
 Harrison, Fred., condemns mod- 
 ern society, 366 
 
 Hart, Mr. E., on small-pox at 
 Ceara, 301 
 
 Harvesting machine, 14 
 
 Heat, mechanical equivalent of, 
 51 
 effect of total absence of, 58 
 only known sources of, 106 
 
 Helium, discovery of, 44 
 
 Herschel, Sir J., opposed evolu- 
 tion, 138 
 
 Hogg, Mrs. , on fur-pullers' lives, 
 353 
 
 Hollander, Dr. Bernard, on 
 Ferrier's confirmation of phre- 
 nology, 186 
 
 Horse, early use of, 6 
 
 Hospital statistics prove vaccina- 
 tion to be useless, 242 
 
 Hondin convinced of clairvoy- 
 ance, 204 
 
 Humphrey, Prof. G. M., on cor- 
 respondence of brain with 
 skull, 192 
 
 Humanity, true, is increasing, 
 380 
 
 Huxley on phrenology, 182 
 
 on misery and its causes, 358 
 
 Hypnotism, opposition to, 194 
 
 Ice, properties of, 55 
 Ice-age, period of, 128, 129 
 Ice-sheets in the British Isles, 
 126 
 in .N"orth America, 127 
 India, our rule of, 839 
 
 evils of our government of, 
 376 
 Infant mortalitj' in London and 
 
 England, 273 
 Inoculation, diseases which pre- 
 vented successful, 216 
 Insane, improved treatment of, 
 
 327 
 Insanity, increase of, 360 
 Ireland, imperfect vaccination 
 in, 258 
 compared with Army and 
 Navy, 283 
 
 Jenner awarded £10,000, 218 
 £20,000 voted by House of 
 Commons in 1807, 222 
 Jenner's Inqiiity, 215 
 Joule, measurement of mechani- 
 cal equivalent of heat, 52 
 Jupiter, fifth satellite of, 96 
 Jura, erratic blocks on, 124 
 
 K 
 
 Kent's cavern, flint weapons in, 
 
 133 
 Kirchoff's discovery of spectrum 
 
 analysis, 43 
 Krakatoa, red sky after eruption 
 
 of, 75 
 
 L 
 Labor-saving machinery, 12 
 Labor, organization of, neces- 
 sary, 383 
 
INDEX. 
 
 89S 
 
 jamps, 37 
 
 jamarck's theory of evolution, 
 
 136 
 Lancet on vaccination disasters, 
 393 
 the, on revacciDatioD, 313 
 jaiui, the re-occupation of, 383 
 icc, Dr., oil clairvoyance, 304 
 jcicoster affords a test experi- 
 ment, 371 
 vaccination and infant mor- 
 tality in, 373 
 jeicester, how dealt witli by 
 Commissioners, 378 
 compared with Army and 
 Navy, 385 
 Leprosy, and plague in England, 
 
 349 
 Letters carried on horseback, 18 
 speed of conveyance station- 
 ary till railroads, 18 
 Leverrier discovers Neptune, 95 
 Leucocytes, function of, 145 
 Light, measure of velocity of, 
 
 60 
 Ligliting, new modes of, 30 
 Linen trade unhealthy, 355 
 Lippman's color-photograpliy, 35 
 Local Government Board's mis- 
 statements as to the steamship 
 PreuBsen, 303 
 Locomotion, three new modes 
 
 of in nineteenth century, 10 
 London small-pox, 344 
 
 small-pox mortality dis- 
 cussed, 345 
 zymotic diseases in, 247 
 growth from 1845, 351 
 main drainage of 1865, 351 
 sanitary advance from 1800, 
 
 352 
 small-pox, teaching of the 
 
 diagram of, 306 
 zymotics, teaching of dia- 
 gram of, 808 
 sanitary improvement of, 
 
 1780-1830, 316 
 effect of great Are on health 
 
 of, 317 
 mode of life in, 317 
 improvement in streets of at 
 end of eighteenth century, 
 Bid 
 
 London, scattering of population 
 after 1800, 330 
 effect of potatoes and tea on 
 
 health of, 331 
 sanitary improvement from 
 1770 to 1810, 323 
 Lower races, our dealings with, 
 
 378 
 Lunacy Act of 1890, very bad, 
 339, 331 
 
 laws, evils of, 338 
 Lyell, Sir Charles, at first op- 
 posed evolution, 141 
 Lyell's Principles of Geology, 
 113 
 objections to, 113 
 Lymph, erroneous use of the 
 term, 313 
 
 M 
 
 Macaulay on filth of London in 
 
 eighteenth century, 317 
 MacCabe, Dr. , on vaccination in 
 Ireland, 358 
 on the unvaccinated in tene- 
 ment-houses, 390 
 Maclean, Dr., 545 cases of small- 
 pox after vaccination, 97 of 
 them fatal, 331 
 Mail-coaches first used, 18 
 Mallet, Mrs., on dangerous 
 
 trades, 355 
 Man, antiquity of, 130 
 pre-glacial, 133 
 older than other species of 
 animals, 133 
 Mariner's compass, discovery of, 
 
 152 
 
 Mars, discovery of satellites of, 
 
 95 
 
 discovery of canals in, 96 
 
 Match-factories often deadly, 856 
 
 Matches, friction, discovery of, 
 
 26 
 Mathematicians witty or poetical, 
 
 176 
 Matter, states of, 55 
 Mayo, Dr., on painless operations 
 
 under mesmerism, 308 
 Measles, the Commissioners on, 
 348 
 in London, 260 
 
396 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Mechanical inventions of nine- 
 teenth century, 15 
 
 Medical men who accepted 
 phrenology, 179 
 
 Meudeleef's prediction of new 
 elements, 91 
 
 Mesmer and animal magnetism, 
 194 
 
 Mesmeric trance, operations dur- 
 ing, 206 
 
 Mesmerism now generally ac- 
 cepted, 310 
 
 Metals, transmutation of, 91 
 
 Meteorites, 99 
 
 Meteoritic theory of the universe, 
 103 
 
 Militarism, 335, 835 
 
 Military power, development of, 
 333 
 
 Millionaires, growth of, 344 
 
 Mill, J. S., on uselessness of 
 small remedies, 367 
 
 Mills, H. v., "Poverty and the 
 State," 359 
 
 Milnes, Mr. A., estimated deaths 
 from vaccination, 330 
 
 Minor planets, discovery of, 93 
 
 Misstatements of National Vac- 
 cine Establishment in Reports, 
 223 
 by Dr. Lettsom, 235 
 by Sir Lyon Playfair, 326 
 by Dr. W. B. Carpenter, 226 
 by Mr. Ernest Hart, 226, 301 
 by the National Health So- 
 ciety, 237 
 as to small-pox at Ceara, SOI 
 as to steamship Prevssen, 303 
 
 Molecular theory of gases, 54 
 
 Money-orders, illogical mode of 
 charging for, 20 
 
 Moraines, 131 
 
 Morrison, Rev. W. D., on in- 
 crease of crime, 364 
 
 Moseley, Dr., on failure of vac- 
 cination in 1804, 319 
 
 Motion of stars measured by 
 spectroscope, 46 
 
 N 
 
 National Health Society's mis- 
 statements, 227 
 
 National selection, 135 
 
 Navies, enormous power of 
 
 modern, 343 
 Navigators, early, 8 
 Navy, causes of reduction of 
 
 mortality in, 282 
 Nebulae, spectroscopic observa- 
 tions of, 45 
 and stars form one system, 
 104 
 Nebular hypothesis less satisfac- 
 tory than the meteoritic, 106 
 Neptune, discovery of, 94 
 Newcombe, Prof., measures 
 
 velocity of light, 63 
 Newspaper, a telephonic, 33 
 Nineteenth century, new modes 
 of locomotion in, 10 
 compared with earlier cen- 
 turies, 150 
 theoretical discoveries of, 
 
 153 
 tabular comparison of with 
 
 earlier ages, 154 
 concluding remarks on, 378 
 North America, glaciation of, 
 125 
 
 erratic blocks of, 135 
 Numerals, invention of, 152 
 Nurses in hospitals, immunity 
 
 of, 391 
 Nutmegs, injudicious cultivation 
 of, 373 
 
 O 
 
 Ocean, cause of blue color of, 
 
 70, 76 
 Operations during mesmeric 
 
 trance, 306 
 Organized labor, economies of, 
 
 384 
 "Origin of Species," effect on 
 
 public opinion, 143 
 " Outcast London," 350 
 
 Painless operations under mes- 
 merism. 2 6 
 Penal system, evils of, 336 
 Penny-postage reform, 18 
 principle of, 19 
 
INDEX. 
 
 397 
 
 Petroleum oils, waste of, 370 
 Phagocytes, 145 
 Phonograph, 66 
 Phosphorus matches very deadly 
 
 to make, 356 
 Photography, discovery of, 32, 
 development of, 33 
 application of to astronomy, 
 
 34. 
 uses in illustrating books, 
 
 etc., 35 
 in colors, 35-37 
 its use in ethnology, 38 
 Phrenology, neglect of, 159 
 discovered by Dr. Gall, 160 
 what it is. 166 
 tests of, 167, 172 
 personal experience of, 174 
 why it has been rejected, 177, 
 
 181 
 confirmed by Ferrier's ex- 
 periments, 186, 188 
 blind prejudices against, 190 
 Physics, theoretical discoveries 
 
 in, 50 
 Physiology, great discoveries in, 
 
 143 
 Plague in India, 339 
 Planets, discovery of minor, 93 
 
 comparative sizes of, 102 
 Pleiades are nebulous, 105 
 Plunder of the earth, 369 
 Poetical mottoes and quotations. 
 Anonymous, 51, 86, 135, 
 
 159, 194 
 Ballad of Reading Jail, 325 
 from Mathilde Blind, 110, 
 135, 343 
 H. Brooke, 143 
 Campbell, 59 
 J. H. Dell, opp. p. 1, 93, 
 
 150, 157, 168, 390 
 Emerson, 51 
 Gay, 316, 318 
 T. L. Harris, opp. Con- 
 tents, 325, 343, 382 
 Hood, 12 
 A. H. Hume, 213 
 Kipling, 17 
 Longfellow, 69, 333 
 Lowell, 367, 382 
 Sir L. Morris, opp. Title, 
 opp. Preface, 381 
 
 Poetical mottoes and quotations, 
 F. T. Molt, 81, 43, 59 
 F. T. Palgrave, 42, 86 
 Prof. Rankine, 1 
 Scott, 388 
 
 Shakespeare, 24, 159 
 Shelley, 69, 143, 194, 333, 
 
 369 
 Swift, 317 
 
 Tennyson, 110, 355, 367 
 Population, density of, affecting 
 disease, 356 
 in Scotland and Ireland, 258 
 Post-chaise, 4 
 
 Post-office, first establishment of, 
 18 
 no real statistics of small-pox 
 mortality in, 286 
 Potatoes helped to abolisli scurvy, 
 
 321 
 Potteries very unliealthy, 355 
 Poverty, one-third population of 
 London in, 346 
 increase of, 348 
 illustrations of, 350 
 Powers, Great, and Turkey, 337 
 Preston, Staff-surgeon, on im- 
 proved health of Navy, 282 
 Preiisseii, steamship, small-pox 
 
 on, 303 
 Prison-system, evils of, 326 
 Profit-system, economic suicide 
 
 of, 385 
 Property, no indefeasible right of 
 
 succession to, 389 
 Prosperity, great commercial, 
 
 357 
 Prussia, small-pox in, 364 
 Putrefaction caused by bacteria, 
 148 
 
 R 
 
 Radiometer, 59 
 Railways, early, 3 
 
 London and Birmingham, 
 
 first opening of, 4 
 2d and 3d class carriages, 4 
 Rain and cloud due to dust, 77 
 Ravines and precipices, how 
 
 formed, 116 
 Remedy for want in the midst of 
 wealth, 388 
 
398 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 RevacciiifttioTi, officials on the 
 
 value of, 280 
 alleged benefits of, 391 
 Rhone gliicier, ancient, 124 
 River basins, rate of lowering of, 
 
 117 
 Rivers crossing hills and mouu- 
 
 liiiiis, 119 
 Rocks smothered by ice, 123 
 RoiiUs near London about 1750, 
 
 yi6 
 
 Roches moutonnees, 132 
 
 Rontgen rays, 40 
 
 Rostan. Dr., on animal magnet- 
 ism, 195 
 
 Rowlej', Dr., on injury and 
 death after vaccination, 1805, 
 319 
 
 Royal Commission accepts the 
 variolous test, 318 
 
 Royal Commissioners should have 
 been statisticians, 335 
 
 Ruraford, Count, on heat as 
 motion, 51 
 
 Sanitary improvement in London, 
 1780-1820, 316 
 
 Saturn's rings, nature of, 97 
 
 Scandinavia, erratic blocks from, 
 123 
 
 Scarlatina and diphtheria in 
 London, 350 
 
 Scurvy common in the eighteenth 
 century, 319 
 
 Seaports, cause of unhealthiness 
 of, 269 
 
 Seventeenth century, inventions 
 in, 152 
 theoretical discoveries in, 
 154 
 
 Sewing-machine, 13 
 
 Sherrard 's " White Slaves of Eng- 
 land," 355 
 
 Sherwell's "Life in West Lon- 
 don," 352 
 
 Ships, antiquity of, 8 
 of war, modern, 334 
 
 Shoe-making by machinery, 13 
 
 Simon, Sir John, evidence for 
 vaccination must now be statis- 
 tical, 285 
 
 Sixteenth century, discoveries in, 
 
 152 
 Sky, cause of blue color of, 70 
 Smallpox in London, 244 
 mortality in London, 246 
 in Engliind, during registra- 
 tion, 253 
 in Scotland and Ireland, 255 
 on the Continent, 259 
 in Sweden after vaccination, 
 
 260 
 mortality not reduced hy 
 
 vaccination, 263 
 in Prussia, 263 
 in Bavaria, 264 
 in seaports, 268 
 and zymotics follow same 
 
 laws, 270 
 in Leicester, 272 
 in Leicester and Birmingliam, 
 
 375 
 in German army, statistics 
 
 unreliable, 393 
 no immunity against second 
 
 attack, 395 
 liability to, increased by 
 
 vaccination, 298 
 and overcrowding, 299 
 in Sweden, Prussia, and 
 
 Bavaria, 308 
 in Leicester, a test case, 309 
 in army and navy, a crucial 
 test, 310 
 Snuffers, use of, 38 
 Socialism, a feature of the end of 
 
 o\ir century, 380 
 Social evils of gold-seeking, 372 
 Solar-system full of planets and 
 
 meteoric matter, 103 
 Solids, partial intermixture of, 56 
 
 evaporation of, 57 
 Southern liemisphere, glaciation 
 
 of, 138 
 Spanish conquests compared with 
 
 ours, 374 
 Species, origin of. supposed to be 
 
 unknowable, 136 
 Spectrum analysis, 42 
 description of, 43 
 accuracy of measurement of 
 star motions by, 48 
 Spencer, Herbert, on the Inscru- 
 table Power, 109 
 
INDEX. 
 
 399 
 
 Speqcer, Herbert, ou ervolutioB, 
 138 
 on education and crime, 363 
 Spurzheim, Dr., in England, 162 
 induces Uouibe to study 
 phrenology, 163 
 Squirrel, Dr., on injury and 
 deatli after vaccination, 1805, 
 320 
 Stars, nature of, discovered by 
 spectroscope, 45 
 
 motion of, measured by 
 
 spectroscope, 46 
 falling, 99 
 Starvation, how to stop, 385 
 Statistics alone can show value of 
 vaccination, 235 
 of vaccinated and unvacci- 
 
 nated worthless, 236 
 Scientific treatment of, 244 
 Steam engine, improvement of, 
 
 152 
 Steamships, first use of, 8 
 
 greatest speed of, 9 
 Stockholm, first vaccination in 
 
 1810, 261 
 Strahan, Dr., on suicide and 
 
 insanity, 361 
 Striated rocks, 122 
 Suicides, increase of, 349, 361 
 Summary of argument against 
 
 vaccination, 300 
 Sunset tints, cause of, 74 
 Surgery, advance in, due to anaes- 
 thetics, 149 
 Sweden, vaccination and small- 
 pox in, 260 
 shows uselessness of vaccina- 
 tion, 363 
 Swift on London streets in 
 eighteenth century, 317 
 
 Tea, increased use of, after 1775, 
 
 331 
 Tebb, Mr. W., on 535 cases of 
 small-pox, after vaccination 
 before 1810, 221 
 Telephone, 23 
 Telephonic newspaper, 33 
 Telescope, invention of, 153 
 Theoretical discoveries of nine- 
 teeth century, 156 
 
 Thermometer, when invented, 
 153 
 
 Thought, conveyance of, 17 
 
 Tinder-box, use of, 36 
 
 Torches, 27 
 
 Trades, dangerous and un- 
 healthy, 355 
 
 Travelling, early modes of, 5 
 
 Tropical cultivation, injury 
 caused by, 373 
 
 Type-writer, 13 
 
 U 
 
 Unhealthy trades, 355 
 Uniformitarian theory, objec- 
 tions to, 113 
 Universe, meteoritic theory of, 
 
 103 
 Unvaccinated a different class 
 from the vaccinated, 241 
 evidence as to, not trusted 
 in Germany, 242 
 
 Vaccinated and unvaccinated, 
 how determined by doctors, 
 237 
 persons wrongly registered, 
 
 238 
 and unvaccinated death rates 
 of, as given by doctors, 
 239 
 and unvaccinated death-rates 
 of, as given by doctors in 
 last century, 340 
 and unvaccinated. how they 
 dififer, 889 
 Vaccination, early history of, 315 
 injury and death from, 319 
 and the medical profession, 
 
 222 
 doctors not best judges, 233 
 deaths caused by, 328 
 illness and death from, 329 
 estimated deaths from, 330 
 oflBcial evidence of, not trust- 
 worthy, 231 
 a dreadful case of death 
 
 from, 333 
 evidence for, often worth- 
 less, 333 
 
400 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Vaccination, how it affects the 
 poor, 234 
 cau only be proved useful 
 
 by statistics, 235 
 marks not permanent, 238 
 marks hidden by eruption, 
 
 238 
 proved useless by modern 
 
 hospital statistics, 342 
 in England 1872-95, 254 
 on the Continent, 259 
 in Stockholm from 1810, 261 
 in Stockholm not especially 
 
 deficient, 263 
 false assertions as to value 
 
 of, 266 
 uselessness of, proved, 367 
 and smallpox in Leicester, 
 
 272 
 and infant mortality in 
 
 Leicester, 273 
 injuries from increased 
 
 death-rate, 373 
 disasters at Shorncliffe Camp 
 
 concealed, 292 
 increases liability to small- 
 pox, 298 
 Vacher, Dr., on registration of 
 vaccinated and unvaccinated, 
 237 
 Variolous test, fallacy of, 216 
 Vegetables, scarcity of, in Lon- 
 don in eighteenth century, 319 
 Velocity of light, measurement 
 
 of, 61 
 Vestiges of creation, 137 
 Vogt, -Prof. A., on vaccination 
 increasing small-pox, 268 
 no immunity from a pre- 
 vious attack of smallpox, 
 296 
 
 Vortex-theory of matter, 108 
 
 W 
 
 Wallace on species, 139 
 
 on survival of the fittest, 140 
 personal test of phrenology, 
 174 
 Want and ■wealth increase to- 
 gether, 366, 383 
 Warrington and Leicester small- 
 pox, 376 
 War, the vampire of, 332-37 
 Wars of the century all dynastic, 
 
 343 
 Wealth, cause of unequal dis- 
 tribution of, 345 
 
 increasing rate of increase 
 
 of, 365 
 
 Webb, Mr. James, on Ferrier'a 
 
 confirmation of phrenological 
 
 organs, 188 
 
 Wedderburn, Sir William, on 
 
 Indian misgovern ment, 377 
 Wit and mathematics, 176 
 Whitelead-making deadly, 355 
 Whooping-cougli i:i London, 250 
 Wonderful Century, name justi- 
 fied. 156 
 
 Zero of temperature, absolute, 
 
 58 
 Zymotics diseases and saniti.'*ion, 
 
 146 
 Zymotic diseases in London, 250 
 
 in Leicester, 272 
 Zymotics in bills of mortality, 
 
 245