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 its absence in some of the members to loss through disuse or natural selection. So that, if the electric organs had been inherited from some one ancient progenitor, we might have expected that all electric fishes would have been specially related to each other; but this is far from the case. Nor does geology at all lead to the belief that most fishes formerly possessed electric organs, which their modified descendants have now lost. But when we look at the subject more closely, we find in the several fishes provided with electric organs, that these are situated in different parts of the body, — that they differ in construction, as in the arrangement of the plates, and, according to Pacini, in the process or means by which the electricity is excited — and lastly, in being supplied with nerves proceeding from different sources, and this is perhaps the most important of all the differences. Hence in the several fishes furnished with electric organs, these cannot be considered as homologous, but only as analogous in function. Consequently there is no reason to suppose that they have been inherited from a common progenitor; for had this been the case they would have closely resembled each other in all respects. Thus the difficulty of an organ, apparently the same, arising in several remotely allied species, disappears, leaving only the lesser yet still great difficulty: namely, by what graduated steps these organs have been developed in each separate group of fishes.

The luminous organs which occur in a few insects, belonging to widely different families, and which are situated in different parts of the body, offer, under our present state of ignorance, a difficulty almost exactly parallel with that of the electric organs. Other similar cases could be given; for instance in plants, the very curious contrivance of a mass of pollen-grains, borne on a foot-stalk with an adhesive gland, is apparently the same in Orchis and Asclepias,— genera almost as remote as is possible among flowering plants; but here again the parts are not homologous. In all cases of beings, far removed from each other in the scale of organisation, which are furnished with similar and peculiar organs, it will be found that although the general appearance and function of the organs may be the same, yet fundamental differences between them can always be detected. For instance, the eyes of Cephalopods or cuttle-fish and of vertebrate animals appear wonderfully alike; and in such widely sundered groups no part of this resemblance can be due to inheritance from a common progenitor. Mr. Mivart has advanced this case as one of special difficulty, but I am unable to see the force of his argument. An organ for vision must be formed of transparent tissue, and must include some sort of lens for

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 throwing an image at the back of a darkened chamber. Beyond this superficial resemblance, there is hardly any real similarity between the eyes of cuttle-fish and vertebrates, as may be seen by consulting Hensen's admirable memoir on these organs in the Cephalopoda. It is impossible for me here to enter on details, but I may specify a few of the points of difference. The crystalline lens in the higher cuttle-fish consists of two parts, placed one behind the other like two lenses, both having a very different structure and disposition to what occurs in the vertebrata. The retina is wholly different, with an actual inversion of the elemental parts, and with a large nervous ganglion included within the membranes of the eye. The relations of the muscles are as different as it is possible to conceive, and so in other points. Hence it is not a little difficult to decide how far even the same terms ought to be employed in describing the eyes of the Cephalopoda and Vertebrata. It is, of course, open to any one to deny that the eye in either case could have been developed through the natural selection of successive slight variations; but if this be admitted in the one case it is clearly possible in the other; and fundamental differences of structure in the visual organs of two groups might have been anticipated, in accordance with this view of their manner of formation. As two men have sometimes independently hit on the same invention, so in the several foregoing cases it appears that natural selection, working for the good of each being, and taking advantage of all favourable variations, has produced similar organs, as far as function is concerned, in distinct organic beings, which owe none of their structure in common to inheritance from a common progenitor.

Fritz Müller, in order to test the conclusions arrived at in this volume, has followed out with much care a nearly similar line of argument. Several families of crustaceans include a few species, possessing an air-breathing apparatus and fitted to live out of the water. In two of these families, which were more especially examined by Müller, and which are nearly related to each other, the species agree most closely in all important characters: namely in their sense organs, circulating systems, in the position of the tufts of hair within their complex stomachs, and lastly in the whole structure of the water-breathing branchiæ, even to the microscopical hooks by which they are cleansed. Hence it might have been expected that in the few species belonging to both families which live on the land, the equally important air-breathing apparatus would have been the same; for why should this one apparatus, given for the same purpose, have been made to differ,

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 while all the other important organs were closely similar or rather identical.

Fritz Müller argues that this close similarity in so many points of structure must, in accordance with the views advanced by me, be accounted for by inheritance from a common progenitor. But as the vast majority of the species in the above two families, as well as most other crustaceans, are aquatic in their habits, it is improbable in the highest degree that their common progenitor should have been adapted for breathing air. Müller was thus led carefully to examine the apparatus in the air-breathing species; and he found it to differ in each in several important points, as in the position of the orifices, in the manner in which they are opened and closed, and in some accessory details. Now such differences are intelligible, and might even have been expected, on the supposition that species belonging to distinct families had slowly become adapted to live more and more out of water, and to breathe the air. For these species, from belonging to distinct families, would have differed to a certain extent, and in accordance with the principle that the nature of each variation depends on two factors, viz., the nature of the organism and that of the surrounding conditions, their variability assuredly would not have been exactly the same. Consequently natural selection would have had different materials or variations to work on, in order to arrive at the same functional result; and the structures thus acquired would almost necessarily have differed. On the hypothesis of separate acts of creation the whole case remains unintelligible. This line of argument seems to have had great weight in leading Fritz Müller to accept the views maintained by me in this volume.

Another distinguished zoologist, the late Professor Claparède, has argued in the same manner, and has arrived at the same result. He shows that there are parasitic mites (Acaridæ), belonging to distinct sub-families and families, which are furnished with hair-claspers. These organs must have been independently developed, as they could not have been inherited from a common progenitor; and in the several groups they are formed by the modification of the fore legs, — of the hind legs, — of the maxillæ or lips, and of appendages on the under side of the hind part of the body.

In the foregoing cases, we see the same end gained and the same function performed, in beings not at all or only remotely allied, by organs in appearance, though not in development, closely similar. On the other hand, it is a common rule throughout nature that the same end should be gained, even sometimes in the case of closely related beings, by the most diversified means. How differently

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 constructed is the feathered wing of a bird and the membrane-covered wing of a bat; and still more so the four wings of a butterfly, the two wings of a fly, and the two wings with the elytra of a beetle. Bivalve shells are made to open and shut, but on what a number of patterns is the hinge constructed,— from the long row of neatly interlocking teeth in a Nucula to the simple ligament of a Mussel! Seeds are disseminated by their minuteness,— by their capsule being converted into a light balloon-like envelope,— by being embedded in pulp or flesh, formed of the most diverse parts, and rendered nutritious, as well as conspicuously coloured, so as to attract and be devoured by birds,— by having hooks and grapnels of many kinds and serrated awns, so as to adhere to the fur of quadrupeds, and by being furnished with wings and plumes, as different in shape as they are elegant in structure, so as to be wafted by every breeze. I will give one other instance: for this subject of the same end being gained by the most diversified means well deserves attention. Some authors maintain that organic beings have been formed in many ways for the sake of mere variety, almost like toys in a shop, but such a view of nature is incredible. With plants having separated sexes, and with those in which, though hermaphrodites, the pollen does not spontaneously fall on the stigma, some aid is necessary for their fertilisation. With several kinds this is effected by the pollen-grains, which are light and incoherent, being blown by the wind through mere chance on to the stigma; and this is the simplest plan which can well be conceived. An almost equally simple, though very different plan occurs in many plants in which a symmetrical flower secretes a few drops of nectar, and is consequently visited by insects; and these carry the pollen from the anthers to the stigma.

From this simple stage we may pass through an inexhaustible number of contrivances, all for the same purpose and effected in essentially the same manner, but entailing changes in every part of the flower. The nectar may be stored in variously shaped receptacles, with the stamens and pistils modified in many ways, sometimes forming trap-like contrivances, and sometimes capable of neatly adapted movements through irritability or elasticity. From such structures we may advance till we come to such a case of extraordinary adaptation as that lately described by Dr. Crüger in the Coryanthes. This orchid has part of its labellum or lower lip hollowed out into a great bucket, into which drops of almost pure water continually fall from two secreting horns which stand above it; and when the bucket is half-full, the water overflows by a spout on one side. The basal part of the labellum stands over the bucket, and is itself hollowed out into a sort of chamber with two

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 lateral entrances; within this chamber there are curious fleshy ridges. The most ingenious man, if he had not witnessed what takes place, could never have imagined what purpose all these parts serve. But Dr. Crüger saw crowds of large humble-bees visiting the gigantic flowers of this orchid, not in order to suck nectar, but to gnaw off the ridges within the chamber above the bucket; in doing this they frequently pushed each other into the bucket, and their wings being thus wetted they could not fly away, but were compelled to crawl out through the passage formed by the spout or overflow. Dr. Crüger saw a "continual procession" of bees thus crawling out of their involuntary bath. The passage is narrow, and is roofed over by the column, so that a bee, in forcing its way out, first rubs its back against the viscid stigma and then against the viscid glands of the pollen-masses. The pollen-masses are thus glued to the back of the bee which first happens to crawl out through the passage of a lately expanded flower, and are thus carried away. Dr. Crüger sent me a flower in spirits of wine, with a bee which he had killed before it had quite crawled out, with a pollen-mass still fastened to its back. When the bee, thus provided, flies to another flower, or to the same flower a second time, and is pushed by its comrades into the bucket and then crawls out by the passage, the pollen-mass necessarily comes first into contact with the viscid stigma, and adheres to it, and the flower is fertilised. Now at last we see the full use of every part of the flower, of the water-secreting horns of the bucket half-full of water, which prevents the bees from flying away, and forces them to crawl out through the spout, and rub against the properly placed viscid pollen-masses and the viscid stigma.

The construction of the flower in another closely allied orchid, namely, the Catasetum, is widely different, though serving the same end; and is equally curious. Bees visit these flowers, like those of the Coryanthes, in order to gnaw the labellum; in doing this they inevitably touch a long, tapering, sensitive projection, or, as I have called it, the antenna. This antenna, when touched, transmits a sensation or vibration to a certain membrane which is instantly ruptured; this sets free a spring by which the pollen-mass is shot forth, like an arrow, in the right direction, and adheres by its viscid extremity to the back of the bee. The pollen-mass of the male plant (for the sexes are separate in this orchid) is thus carried to the flower of the female plant, where it is brought into contact with the stigma, which is viscid enough to break certain elastic threads, and retaining the pollen, fertilisation is effected.

How, it may be asked, in the foregoing and in innumerable other

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 instances, can we understand the graduated scale of complexity and the multifarious means for gaining the same end. The answer no doubt is, as already remarked, that when two forms vary, which already differ from each other in some slight degree, the variability will not be of the same exact nature, and consequently the results obtained through natural selection for the same general purpose will not be the same. We should also bear in mind that every highly developed organism has passed through many changes; and that each modified structure tends to be inherited, so that each modification will not readily be quite lost, but may be again and again further altered. Hence, the structure of each part of each species, for whatever purpose it may serve, is the sum of many inherited changes, through which the species has passed during its successive adaptations to changed habits and conditions of life.

Finally, then, although in many cases it is most difficult even to conjecture by what transitions organs could have arrived at their present state; yet, considering how small the proportion of living and known forms is to the extinct and unknown, I have been astonished how rarely an organ can be named, towards which no transitional grade is known to lead. It is certainly true, that new organs appearing as if created for some special purpose rarely or never appear in any being;— as indeed is shown by that old, but somewhat exaggerated, canon in natural history of "Natura non facit saltum." We meet with this admission in the writings of almost every experienced naturalist; or, as Milne Edwards has well expressed it, Nature is prodigal in variety, but niggard in innovation. Why, on the theory of Creation, should there be so much variety and so little real novelty? Why should all the parts and organs of many independent beings, each supposed to have been separately created for its own proper place in nature, be so commonly linked together by graduated steps? Why should not Nature take a sudden leap from structure to structure? On the theory of natural selection, we can clearly understand why she should not; for natural selection acts only by taking advantage of slight successive variations; she can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by the short and sure, though slow steps.

Organs of little apparent Importance, as affected by Natural Selection.

As natural selection acts by life and death,— by the survival of the fittest, and by the destruction of the less well-fitted individuals,— I have sometimes felt great difficulty in understanding the origin or formation of parts of little importance; almost as

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 great, though of a very different kind, as in the case of the most perfect and complex organs.

In the first place, we are much too ignorant in regard to the whole economy of any one organic being to say what slight modifications would be of importance or not. In a former chapter I have given instances of very trifling characters, such as the down on fruit and the colour of its flesh, the colour of the skin and hair of quadrupeds, which, from being correlated with constitutional differences, or from determining the attacks of insects, might assuredly be acted on by natural selection. The tail of the giraffe looks like an artificially constructed fly-flapper; and it seems at first incredible that this could have been adapted for its present purpose by successive slight modifications, each better and better fitted, for so trifling an object as to drive away flies; yet we should pause before being too positive even in this case, for we know that the distribution and existence of cattle and other animals in South America absolutely depend on their power of resisting the attacks of insects: so that individuals which could by any means defend themselves from these small enemies, would be able to range into new pastures and thus gain a great advantage. It is not that the larger quadrupeds are actually destroyed (except in some rare cases) by flies, but they are incessantly harassed and their strength reduced, so that they are more subject to disease, or not so well enabled in a coming dearth to search for food, or to escape from beasts of prey.

Organs now of trifling importance have probably in some cases been of high importance to an early progenitor, and, after having been slowly perfected at a former period, have been transmitted to existing species in nearly the same state, although now of very slight use; but any actually injurious deviations in their structure would of course have been checked by natural selection. Seeing how important an organ of locomotion the tail is in most aquatic animals, its general presence and use for many purposes in so many land animals, which in their lungs or modified swim-bladders betray their aquatic origin, may perhaps be thus accounted for. A well-developed tail having been formed in an aquatic animal, it might subsequently come to be worked in for all sorts of purposes,— as a fly-flapper, an organ of prehension, or as an aid in turning, as in the case of the dog, though the aid in this latter respect must be slight, for the hare, with hardly any tail, can double still more quickly.

In the second place, we may easily err in attributing importance to characters, and in believing that they have been developed

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 through natural selection. We must by no means overlook the effects of the definite action of changed conditions of life,— of so-called spontaneous variations, which seem to depend in a quite subordinate degree on the nature of the conditions, of the tendency to reversion to long-lost characters,— of the complex laws of growth, such as of correlation, comprehension, of the pressure of one part on another, &c.,— and finally of sexual selection, by which characters of use to one sex are often gained and then transmitted more or less perfectly to the other sex, though of no use to the sex. But structures thus indirectly gained, although at first of no advantage to a species, may subsequently have been taken advantage of by its modified descendants, under new conditions of life and newly acquired habits.

If green woodpeckers alone had existed, and we did not know that there were many black and pied kinds, I dare say that we should have thought that the green colour was a beautiful adaptation to conceal this tree-frequenting bird from its enemies; and consequently that it was a character of importance, and had been acquired through natural selection; as it is, the colour is probably in chief part due to sexual selection. A trailing palm in the Malay Archipelago climbs the loftiest trees by the aid of exquisitely constructed hooks clustered around the ends of the branches, and this contrivance, no doubt, is of the highest service to the plant; but as we see nearly similar hooks on many trees which are not climbers, and which, as there is reason to believe from the distribution of the thorn- bearing species in Africa and South America, serve as a defence against browsing quadrupeds, so the spikes on the palm may at first have been developed for this object, and subsequently have been improved and taken advantage of by the plant, as it underwent further modification and became a climber. The naked skin on the head of a vulture is generally considered as a direct adaptation for wallowing in putridity; and so it may be, or it may possibly be due to the direct action of putrid matter; but we should be very cautious in drawing any such inference, when we see that the skin on the head of the clean-feeding male turkey is likewise naked. The sutures in the skulls of young mammals have been advanced as a beautiful adaptation for aiding parturition, and no doubt they facilitate, or may be indispensable for this act; but as sutures occur in the skulls of young birds and reptiles, which have only to escape from a broken egg, we may infer that this structure has arisen from the laws of growth, and has been taken advantage of in the parturition of the higher animals.

We are profoundly ignorant of the cause of each slight variation

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 or individual difference; and we are immediately made conscious of this by reflecting on the differences between the breeds of our domesticated animals in different countries,— more especially in the less civilized countries, where there has been but little methodical selection. Animals kept by savages in different countries often have to struggle for their own subsistence, and are exposed to a certain extent to natural selection, and individuals with slightly different constitutions would succeed best under different climates. With cattle susceptibility to the attacks of flies is correlated with colour, as is the liability to be poisoned by certain plants; so that even colour would be thus subjected to the action of natural selection. Some observers are convinced that a damp climate affects the growth of the hair, and that with the hair the horns are correlated. Mountain breeds always differ from lowland breeds; and a mountainous country would probably affect the hind limbs from exercising them more, and possibly even the form of the pelvis; and then by the law of homologous variation, the front limbs and the head would probably be affected. The shape, also, of the pelvis might affect by pressure the shape of certain parts of the young in the womb. The laborious breathing necessary in high regions tends, as we have good reason to believe, to increase the size of the chest; and again correlation would come into play. The effects of lessened exercise, together with abundant food, on the whole organisation is probably still more important, and this, as H. von Nathusius has lately shown in his excellent Treatise, is apparently one chief cause of the great modification which the breeds of swine have undergone. But we are far too ignorant to speculate on the relative importance of the several known and unknown causes of variation; and I have made these remarks only to show that, if we are unable to account for the characteristic differences of our several domestic breeds, which nevertheless are generally admitted to have arisen through ordinary generation from one or a few parent-stocks, we ought not to lay too much stress on our ignorance of the precise cause of the slight analogous differences between true species.

Utilitarian Doctrine, how far true: Beauty, how acquired.

The foregoing remarks lead me to say a few words on the protest lately made by some naturalists against the utilitarian doctrine that every detail of structure has been produced for the good of its possessor. They believe that many structures have been created for the sake of beauty, to delight man or the Creator (but this latter point is beyond the scope of scientific discussion), or for the

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 sake of mere variety, a view already discussed. Such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory. I fully admit that many structures are now of no direct use to their possessors, and may never have been of any use to their progenitors; but this does not prove that they were formed solely for beauty or variety. No doubt the definite action of changed conditions, and the various causes of modifications, lately specified, have all produced an effect, probably a great effect, independently of any advantage thus gained. But a still more important consideration is that the chief part of the organisation of every living creature is due to inheritance; and consequently, though each being assuredly is well fitted for its place in nature, many structures have now no very close and direct relation to present habits of life. Thus, we can hardly believe that the webbed feet of the upland goose, or of the frigate-bird, are of special use to these birds; we cannot believe that the similar bones in the arm of the monkey, in the fore leg of the horse, in the wing of the bat, and in the flipper of the seal, are of special use to these animals. We may safely attribute these structures to inheritance. But webbed feet no doubt were as useful to the progenitor of the upland goose and of the frigate-bird, as they now are to the most aquatic of living birds. So we may believe that the progenitor of the seal did not possess a flipper, but a foot with five toes fitted for walking or grasping; and we may further venture to believe that the several bones in the limbs of the monkey, horse and bat, were originally developed, on the principle of utility, probably through the reduction of more numerous bones in the fin of some ancient fish-like progenitor of the whole class. It is scarcely possible to decide how much allowance ought to be made for such causes of change, as the definite action of external conditions, so-called spontaneous variations, and the complex laws of growth; but with these important exceptions, we may conclude that the structure of every living creature either now is, or was formerly, of some direct or indirect use to its possessor.

With respect to the belief that organic beings have been created beautiful for the delight of man,— a belief which it has been pronounced is subversive of my whole theory,— I may first remark that the sense of beauty obviously depends on the nature of the mind, irrespective of any real quality in the admired object; and that the idea of what is beautiful, is not innate or unalterable. We see this, for instance, in the men of different races admiring an entirely different standard of beauty in their women. If beautiful objects had been created solely for man's gratification, it ought to

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 be shown that before man appeared there was less beauty on the face of the earth than since he came on the stage. Were the beautiful volute and cone shells of the Eocene epoch, and the gracefully sculptured ammonites of the Secondary period, created that man might ages afterwards admire them in his cabinet? Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the diatomaceæ: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the higher powers of the microscope? The beauty in this latter case, and in many others, is apparently wholly due to symmetry of growth. Flowers rank among the most beautiful productions of nature; but they have been rendered conspicuous in contrast with the green leaves, and in consequence at the same time beautiful, so that they may be easily observed by insects. I have come to this conclusion from finding it an invariable rule that when a flower is fertilised by the wind it never has a gaily-coloured corolla. Several plants habitually produce two kinds of flowers; one kind open and coloured so as to attract insects; the other closed, not coloured, destitute of nectar, and never visited by insects. Hence, we may conclude that, if insects had not been developed on the face of the earth, our plants would not have been decked with beautiful flowers, but would have produced only such poor flowers as we see on our fir, oak, nut and ash trees, on grasses, spinach, docks and nettles, which are all fertilised through the agency of the wind. A similar line of argument holds good with fruits; that a ripe strawberry or cherry is as pleasing to the eye as to the palate,— that the gaily-coloured fruit of the spindle-wood tree and the scarlet berries of the holly are beautiful objects,— will be admitted by everyone. But this beauty serves merely as a guide to birds and beasts, in order that the fruit may be devoured and the matured seeds disseminated: I infer that this is the case from having as yet found no exception to the rule that seeds are always thus disseminated when embedded within a fruit of any kind (that is within a fleshy or pulpy envelope), if it be coloured of any brilliant tint, or rendered conspicuous by being white or black.

On the other hand, I willingly admit that a great number of male animals, as all our most gorgeous birds, some fishes, reptiles, and mammals, and a host of magnificently coloured butterflies, have been rendered beautiful for beauty's sake. But this has been effected through sexual selection, that is, by the more beautiful males having been continually preferred by the females, and not for the delight of man. So it is with the music of birds. We may infer from all this that a nearly similar taste for beautiful colours and for musical sounds runs through a large part of the animal

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 kingdom. When the female is as beautifully coloured as the male, which is not rarely the case with birds and butterflies, the cause apparently lies in the colours acquired through sexual selection having been transmitted to both sexes, instead of to the males alone. How the sense of beauty in its simplest form — that is, the reception of a peculiar kind of pleasure from certain colours, forms and sounds — was first developed in the mind of man and of the lower animals, is a very obscure subject. The same sort of difficulty is presented if we enquire how it is that certain flavours and odours give pleasure, and others displeasure. Habit in all these cases appears to have come to a certain extent into play; but there must be some fundamental cause in the constitution of the nervous system in each species.

Natural selection cannot possibly produce any modification in a species exclusively for the good of another species; though throughout nature one species incessantly takes advantage of, and profits by the structures of others. But natural selection can and does often produce structures for the direct injury of other animals, as we see in the fang of the adder, and in the ovipositor of the ichneumon, by which its eggs are deposited in the living bodies of other insects. If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection. Although many statements may be found in works on natural history to this effect, I cannot find even one which seems to me of any weight. It is admitted that the rattlesnake has a poison-fang for its own defence and for the destruction of its prey; but some authors suppose that at the same time it is furnished with a rattle for its own injury, namely, to warn its prey. I would almost as soon believe that the cat curls the end of its tail when preparing to spring, in order to warn the doomed mouse. It is a much more probable view that the rattlesnake uses its rattle, the cobra expands its frill and the puff-adder swells while hissing so loudly and harshly, in order to alarm the many birds and beasts which are known to attack even the most venomous species. Snakes act on the same principle which makes the hen ruffle her feathers and expand her wings when a dog approaches her chickens. But I have not space here to enlarge on the many ways by which animals endeavour to frighten away their enemies.

Natural selection will never produce in a being any structure more injurious than beneficial to that being, for natural selection

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 acts solely by and for the good of each. No organ will be formed, as Paley has remarked, for the purpose of causing pain or for doing an injury to its possessor. If a fair balance be struck between the good and evil caused by each part, each will be found on the whole advantageous. After the lapse of time, under changing conditions of life, if any part comes to be injurious, it will be modified; or if it be not so, the being will become extinct, as myriads have become extinct.

Natural selection tends only to make each organic being as perfect as, or slightly more perfect than the other inhabitants of the same country with which it comes into competition. And we see that this is the standard of perfection attained under nature. The endemic productions of New Zealand, for instance, are perfect, one compared with another; but they are now rapidly yielding before the advancing legions of plants and animals introduced from Europe. Natural selection will not produce absolute perfection, nor do we always meet, as far as we can judge, with this high standard under nature. The correction for the aberration of light is said by Muller not to be perfect even in that most perfect organ, the human eye. Helmholtz, whose judgment no one will dispute, after describing in the strongest terms the wonderful powers of the human eye, adds these remarkable words: "That which we have discovered in the way of inexactness and imperfection in the optical machine and in the image on the retina, is as nothing in comparison with the incongruities which we have just come across in the domain of the sensations. One might say that nature has taken delight in accumulating contradictions in order to remove all foundation from the theory of a pre-existing harmony between the external and internal worlds." If our reason leads us to admire with enthusiasm a multitude of inimitable contrivances in nature, this same reason tells us, though we may easily err on both sides, that some other contrivances are less perfect. Can we consider the sting of the bee as perfect, which, when used against many kinds of enemies, cannot be withdrawn, owing to the backward serratures, and thus inevitably causes the death of the insect by tearing out its viscera?

If we look at the sting of the bee, as having existed in a remote progenitor, as a boring and serrated instrument, like that in so many members of the same great order, and that it has since been modified but not perfected for its present purpose, with the poison originally adapted for some other object, such as to produce galls, since intensified, we can perhaps understand how it is that the use of the sting should so often cause the insect's own death: for if on the whole the power of stinging be useful to the social community,

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 it will fulfil all the requirements of natural selection, though it may cause the death of some few members. If we admire the truly wonderful power of scent by which the males of many insects find their females, can we admire the production for this single purpose of thousands of drones, which are utterly useless to the community for any other purpose, and which are ultimately slaughtered by their industrious and sterile sisters? It may be difficult, but we ought to admire the savage instinctive hatred of the queen-bee, which urges her to destroy the young queens, her daughters, as soon as they are born, or to perish herself in the combat; for undoubtedly this is for the good of the community; and maternal love or maternal hatred, though the latter fortunately is most rare, is all the same to the inexorable principles of natural selection. If we admire the several ingenious contrivances by which orchids and many other plants are fertilised through insect agency, can we consider as equally perfect the elaboration of dense clouds of pollen by our fir-trees, so that a few granules may be wafted by chance on to the ovules?

Summary: The Law of Unity of Type and of the Conditions of Existence embraced by the Theory of Natural Selection.

We have in this chapter discussed some of the difficulties and objections which may be urged against the theory. Many of them are serious; but I think that in the discussion light has been thrown on several facts, which on the belief of independent acts of creation are utterly obscure. We have seen that species at any one period are not indefinitely variable, and are not linked together by a multitude of intermediate gradations, partly because the process of natural selection is always very slow, and at any one time acts only on a few forms; and partly because the very process of natural selection implies the continual supplanting and extinction of preceding and intermediate gradations. Closely allied species, now living on a continuous area, must often have been formed when the area was not continuous, and when the conditions of life did not insensibly graduate away from one part to another. When two varieties are formed in two districts of a continuous area, an intermediate variety will often be formed, fitted for an intermediate zone; but from reasons assigned, the intermediate variety will usually exist in lesser numbers than the two forms which it connects; consequently the two latter, during the course of further modification, from existing in greater numbers, will have a great advantage over the less numerous intermediate variety, and will thus generally succeed in supplanting and exterminating it.

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 We have seen in this chapter how cautious we should be in concluding that the most different habits of life could not graduate into each other; that a bat, for instance, could not have been formed by natural selection from an animal which at first only glided through the air.

We have seen that a species under new conditions of life may change its habits; or it may have diversified habits, with some very unlike those of its nearest congeners. Hence we can understand, bearing in mind that each organic being is trying to live wherever it can live, how it has arisen that there are upland geese with webbed feet, ground woodpeckers, diving thrushes, and petrels with the habits of auks.

Although the belief that an organ so perfect as the eye could have been formed by natural selection, is enough to stagger any one; yet in the case of any organ, if we know of a long series of gradations in complexity, each good for its possessor, then under changing conditions of life, there is no logical impossibility in the acquirement of any conceivable degree of perfection through natural selection. In the cases in which we know of no intermediate or transitional states, we should be extremely cautious in concluding that none can have existed, for the metamorphoses of many organs show what wonderful changes in function are at least possible. For instance, a swim-bladder has apparently been converted into an air-breathing lung. The same organ having performed simultaneously very different functions, and then having been in part or in whole specialised for one function; and two distinct organs having performed at the same time the same function, the one having been perfected whilst aided by the other, must often have largely facilitated transitions.

We have seen that in two beings widely remote from each other in the natural scale, organs serving for the same purpose and in external appearance closely similar may have been separately and independently formed; but when such organs are closely examined, essential differences in their structure can almost always be detected; and this naturally follows from the principle of natural selection. On the other hand, the common rule throughout nature is infinite diversity of structure for gaining the same end; and this again naturally follows from the same great principle.

In many cases we are far too ignorant to be enabled to assert that a part or organ is so unimportant for the welfare of a species, that modifications in its structure could not have been slowly accumulated by means of natural selection. In many other cases, modifications

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 are probably the direct result of the laws of variation or of growth, independently of any good having been thus gained. But even such structures have often, as we may feel assured, been subsequently taken advantage of, and still further modified, for the good of species under new conditions of life. We may, also, believe that a part formerly of high importance has frequently been retained (as the tail of an aquatic animal by its terrestrial descendants), though it has become of such small importance that it could not, in its present state, have been acquired by means of natural selection.

Natural selection can produce nothing in one species for the exclusive good or injury of another; though it may well produce parts, organs, and excretions highly useful or even indispensable, or highly injurious to another species, but in all cases at the same time useful to the possessor. In each well-stocked country natural selection acts through the competition of the inhabitants and consequently leads to success in the battle for life, only in accordance with the standard of that particular country. Hence the inhabitants of one country, generally the smaller one, often yield to the inhabitants of another and generally the larger country. For in the larger country there will have existed more individuals, and more diversified forms, and the competition will have been severer, and thus the standard of perfection will have been rendered higher. Natural selection will not necessarily lead to absolute perfection; nor, as far as we can judge by our limited faculties, can absolute perfection be everywhere predicated.

On the theory of natural selection we can clearly understand the full meaning of that old canon in natural history, "Natura non facit saltum." This canon, if we look to the present inhabitants alone of the world, is not strictly correct; but if we include all those of past times, whether known or unknown, it must on this theory be strictly true.

It is generally acknowledged that all organic beings have been formed on two great laws — Unity of Type, and the Conditions of Existence. By unity of type is meant that fundamental agreement in structure which we see in organic beings of the same class, and which is quite independent of their habits of life. On my theory, unity of type is explained by unity of descent. The expression of conditions of existence, so often insisted on by the illustrious Cuvier, is fully embraced by the principle of natural selection. For natural selection acts by either now adapting the varying parts of each being to its organic and inorganic conditions of life; or by

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 having adapted them during past periods of time: the adaptations being aided in many cases by the increased use or disuse of parts, being affected by the direct action of external conditions of life, and subjected in all cases to the several laws of growth and variation. Hence, in fact, the law of the Conditions of Existence is the higher law; as it includes, through the inheritance of former variations and adaptations, that of Unity of Type.

title: Page:Origin of Species 1872.djvu/189


text:
User:George Burgess

I live in Dalkeith near Edinburgh in Scotland. I am a civil servant with the Scottish Government, currently responsible for environmental policy.

Doing some work here, principally on the Dictionary of National Biography. Active on Wikipedia since 2005.

title: User:George Burgess


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brit, Walter


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brihtwald


text:
User talk:O.Ema

— billinghurst  sDrewth  12:15, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Wikisource is not a listing of authors, it is a listing of authors who have work in the public domain, and where we can link to such work. If the author does have published works that are not in copyright then please feel welcome to reconstruct the page using the format described at Template:Author. If you are wishing to create an encyclopaedic article for the author, then you would be looking to do that at Wikipedia: — billinghurst  sDrewth  12:15, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

title: User talk:O.Ema


text:
Wikisource:Books/An Ideal Husband, by Oscar Wilde

An Ideal Husband

 * An Ideal Husband
 * An Ideal Husband/Act I
 * An Ideal Husband/Act II
 * An Ideal Husband/Act III
 * An Ideal Husband/Act IV


text:
Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/413

384 and in 1846, when Bishop Salvado first landed in the colony, whaling had, as he says, brought large sums of money into it. But either through want of capital or of enterprise, or the lack of both combined, together with a dreamy reliance on the all-sufficiency of Government "contracts," the colonists, for many years past, have contented themselves with merely fitting out boats intended to fish from the shore, instead of following the whales over the ocean in well-found ships, like the Americans, so that now the capture of even one solitary fish is considered a very noteworthy occurrence. In the meantime the whale fishery par excellence has passed into the possession of the watchful Americans, whose ships the colonists have seen returning year by year with the utmost regularity, contented to buy of them the sperm oil, which ought to have been their own, whenever the alien fishers thought fit to dispose of it in Western Australia.

I found that before the breaking out of the war between North and South which detained American sailors upon their own shores, the arrival of the Yankee whalers at a stated season had been quite looked forward to by the inhabitants of Bunbury and the Vasse, not only as a little break to the twelvemonth's uniformity, but also as a source of friendly intercourse and trading. One of our colonial acquaintances, who had a cattle station near Cape Naturaliste, told us that at one time a whaling captain was in the habit, on the expiration of his annual voyage, of leaving an empty ship's cask in her hands to be called for in the following year, by which time she was accustomed to have it filled for him with salted beef. The urbanities of life were also mingled

title: Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/413


text:
Mrs. Caudle's curtain lectures/The curtain lectures

 * }


text:
User:Utuabzu/myskin.css

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title: User:Utuabzu/myskin.css


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Eads, James Buchanan


text:
1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pulitzer, Joseph

PULITZER, JOSEPH (1847-1911), American editor and newspaper proprietor, was born in Budapest, Hungary, April 10 1847. He came to America in 1864, entered the Union Army, and served to the end of the Civil War. In 1868 he became a reporter on the Westliche Post, a German newspaper in St. Louis, and in 1871 managing editor and part owner. In 1869 he was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives; in 1872 was a delegate to the Liberal Republican National Convention which nominated Horace Greeley for president; and in 1874 was a member of the Missouri Constitutional Convention. In 1876-7, during the Hayes-Tilden controversy, he was in Washington, D.C., as correspondent for the New York Sun. In 1878 he purchased the St. Louis Evening Dispatch and Evening Post, combining them as Post-Dispatch. In 1880 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention. In 1883 he bought from Jay Gould the New York World (see 19.569), which fearlessly attacked political corruption. In 1884 he was elected Democratic member of Congress from the state of New York, but resigned after serving a few months. In 1896 he allied himself with the “Gold” Democrats and opposed the nomination of William Jennings Bryan. During his later years he was blind and spent much of his time cruising about the world in his yacht, but to the end continued to direct his New York paper. He died on board his yacht in Charleston harbour, S.C., Oct. 29 1911. Interested in improving the profession of journalism, he worked out a plan for establishing a school for training journalists. In 1903 he set aside $1,000,000 for establishing a school of journalism at Columbia University. His own idea as to the object of such a school is set forth in an article, “The College of Journalism,” contributed to the North American Review for May 1904. In Sept. 1912 the School of Journalism of Columbia was opened. He left $500,000 each to the New York Philharmonic Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

His son, (b. 1879), succeeded him in control of his newspaper properties. He married (1905) Miss Frederica Vanderbilt Webb of New York City.


text:
Zoonomia

OR,

THE LAWS

OF

By ERASMUS DARWIN, M.D. F.R.S.

AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN.

Principiò cœlum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, Lucentemque globum lunæ, titaniaque astra, Spiritus intùs alit, totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.—. Æn. vi.

Earth, on whose lap a thousand nations tread, And Ocean, brooding his prolific bed, Night's changeful orb, blue pole, and silvery zones, Where other worlds encircle other suns, One Mind inhabits, one diffusive Soul Wields the large limbs, and mingles with the whole.

THE SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR. J. JOHNSON, IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD.

1796.

Entered at Stationers' Hall.

DEDICATION.

To the candid and ingenious Members of the College of Physicians, of the Royal Philosophical Society, of the Two Universities, and to all those, who study the Operations of the Mind as a Science, or who practice Medicine as a Profession, the subsequent Work is, with great respect, inscribed by the Author,

DERBY, May 1, 1794.

CONTENTS.

Volume I.

Part I

 * Preface
 * SECT. I. 	Of Motion.
 * II. 	Explanations and Definitions.
 * III. 	The Motions of the Retina demonstrated by Experiments.
 * IV. 	Laws of Animal Causation.
 * V. 	Of the four Faculties or Motions of the Sensorium.
 * VI. 	Of the four Classes of Fibrous Motions.
 * VII. 	Of Irritative Motions.
 * VIII. 	Of Sensitive Motions.
 * IX. 	Of Voluntary Motions.
 * X. 	Of Associate Motions.
 * XI. 	Additional Observations on the Sensorial Powers.
 * XII. 	Of Stimulus, Sensorial Exertion, and Fibrous Contraction.
 * XIII. 	Of Vegetable Animation.
 * XIV. 	Of the Production of Ideas.
 * XV. 	Of the Classes of Ideas.
 * XVI. 	Of Instinct.
 * XVII. 	The Catenation of Animal Motions.
 * XVIII. 	Of Sleep.
 * XIX. 	Of Reverie.
 * XX. 	Of Vertigo.
 * XXI. 	Of Drunkenness.
 * XXII. 	Of Propensity to Motion. Repetition. Imitation.
 * XXIII. 	Of the Circulatory System.
 * XXIV. 	Of the Secretion of Saliva, and of Tears. And of the Lacrymal Sack.
 * XXV. 	Of the Stomach and Intestines.
 * XXVI. 	Of the Capillary Glands, and of the Membranes.
 * XXVII. 	Of Hemorrhages.
 * XXVIII. 	The Paralysis of the Lacteals.
 * XXIX. 	The Retrograde Motions of the Absorbent Vessels.
 * XXX. 	The Paralysis of the Liver.
 * XXXI. 	Of Temperaments.
 * XXXII. 	Diseases of Irritation.
 * XXXIII. 	—— of Sensation.
 * XXXIV. 	—— of Volition.
 * XXXV. 	—— of Relation.
 * XXXVI. 	The Periods of Diseases.
 * XXXVII. 	Of Digestion, Secretion, Nutrition.
 * XXXVIII. 	Of the Oxygenation of the Blood in the Lungs and Placenta.
 * XXXIX. 	Of Generation.
 * XL. 	Of Ocular Spectra.
 * Index

Volume II.

Part II - Classes of Diseases.

 * Preface
 * I. Diseases of Irritation.
 * Ordo I.—Increased Irritation. Genera:
 * 1. With increased actions of the sanguiferous system.
 * 2. With increased actions of the secerning system.
 * 3. With increased actions of the absorbent system.
 * 4. With increased actions of other cavities and membranes.
 * 5. With increased actions of the organs of sense.
 * Ordo II.—Decreased Irritation. Genera:
 * 1. With decreased actions of the sanguiferous system.
 * 2. With decreased actions of the secerning system.
 * 3. With decreased actions of the absorbent system.
 * 4. With decreased actions of other cavities and membranes.
 * 5. With decreased actions of the organs of sense.
 * Ordo III.—Retrograde Irritative Motions. Genera:
 * 1. Of the alimentary canal.
 * 2. Of the absorbent system.
 * 3. Of the sanguiferous system.
 * II. Diseases of Sensation.
 * Ordo I.—Increased Sensation. Genera:
 * 1. With increased action of the muscles.
 * 2. With the production of new vessels by internal membranes or glands with fever.
 * 3. With the production of new vessels by external membranes or glands with fever.
 * 4. With the production of new vessels by internal membranes or glands without fever.
 * 5. With the production of new vessels by external membranes or glands without fever.
 * 6. With fever consequent to the production of new vessels or fluids.
 * 7. With increased action of the organs of sense.
 * Ordo II.—Decreased Sensation. Genera.:
 * 1. With decreased actions of the general system.
 * 2. With decreased actions of particular organs.
 * Ordo III.—Retrograde Sensitive Motions. Genus:
 * 1. Of the excretory ducts.
 * III. Diseases of Volition.
 * Ordo I.—Increased Volition. Genera:
 * 1. With increased actions of the muscles.
 * 2. With increased actions of the organs of sense.
 * Ordo II.—Decreased Volition. Genera:
 * 1. With decreased actions of the muscles.
 * 2. With decreased actions of the organs of sense.
 * IV. Diseases of Association.
 * Ordo I.—Increased Associate Motions. Genera:
 * 1. Catenated with irritative motions.
 * 2. Catenated with sensitive motions.
 * 3. Catenated with voluntary motions.
 * 4. Catenated with external influences.
 * Ordo II.—Decreased Associate Motions. Genera:
 * 1. Catenated with irritative motions.
 * 2. Catenated with sensitive motions.
 * 3. Catenated with voluntary motions.
 * 4. Catenated with external influences.
 * Ordo III.—Retrograde Associate Motions. Genera:
 * 1. Catenated with irritative motions.
 * 2. Catenated with sensitive motions.
 * 3. Catenated with voluntary motions.
 * 4. Catenated with external influences.
 * Supplement—Sympathetic Theory of Fever.
 * Additions to Part II.
 * Index

Part III - Articles of the Materia Medica.

 * Preface
 * 1. Nutrientia, or those things which preserve in their natural state the due exertions of all the irritative motions.
 * 2. Incitantia, or those things which increase the exertions of all the irritative motions.
 * 3. Secernentia, or those things which increase the irritative motions, which constitute secretion.
 * 4. Sorbentia, or those things which increase the irritative motions, which constitute absorption.
 * 5. Invertentia, or those things which invert the natural order of the successive irritative motions.
 * 6. Revertentia, or those things which restore the natural order of the inverted irritative motions.
 * 7. Torpentia, those things which diminish the exertions of all the irritative motions.
 * Further Additions to Part II.
 * Index

title: Zoonomia


text: Talk:Zoonomia

title: Talk:Zoonomia


text:
1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Putnik, Radomir

PUTNIK, RADOMIR (1847-1917), Serbian general, was born on Jan. 25 1847 at Kraguyevats. Like many other prominent figures in the life of his country, he came of a family which had emigrated to the Banat during the Turkish conquest and returned to Serbia after the expulsion of the Turks. Passing through the artillery school (which afterwards became the Serbian military academy), he obtained his commission in a line regiment. In 1876 he commanded a brigade in the war against Turkey, and when war was renewed in 1877 became chief-of-staff of the Shumaja Division. In the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885 he held a similar post in the Danubian Division, and in 1889 was made deputy-chief of the general staff, and taught as professor at the military academy in Belgrade. Like many other brilliant officers, he suffered from the favouritism which Kings Milan and Alexander had introduced into the Serbian army and from the consequent atmosphere of intrigue and personal rivalry. He was placed on the retired list, and it was only after the military revolution which destroyed the Obrenović dynasty in 1903 that he obtained his real opportunity of service. In that autumn he was appointed general and chief of the general staff. In 1906 he succeeded Gen. Gruić as Minister of War, and again held that office in 1912, during the decisive period when the military convention with Bulgaria was being negotiated. On the outbreak of war with Turkey he was made voivode or marshal (being the first holder of that title) and commander-in-chief, and was responsible for the rapid success of the Serbian arms at Kumanovo, Prilep and Monastir. It was largely owing to his vigilance and foresight that the treacherous night attack by which the Bulgarians opened the second Balkan War (June 29 1913) was so complete a failure. In the preceding months of suspense he and his staff had worked out a careful plan of action, and when Gen. Savov on July 1 gave his amazing order for the cessation of hostilities, Putnik was able to launch a counter-offensive, which resulted in the long-drawn-out battle of the Bregalnitsa and the final retreat of the Bulgarians. When the World War broke out he was undergoing a cure at an Austrian watering place — a very practical proof that the Serbian High Command was not preparing for an armed conflict. At first placed under arrest, he was released by special order of the Emperor Francis Joseph and conveyed to the Rumanian frontier. His impaired health did not prevent him from resuming the position of Serbian generalissimo and organizing the resistance of the country to invasion; and he inflicted upon the forces of Gen. Potiorek three successive defeats — the battles of the Yadar (Aug. 16-20), of the Drina (Sept. 8-19) and of Rudnik, which ended on Dec. 14 1914 with an Austrian rout and the complete evacuation of Serbia. On the latter occasion Putnik's success was rendered definitive by the genius of Gen. Mišić, the commander of the I. Army. Putnik retained the supreme command during the triple invasion of Serbia by the German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian armies in Nov. 1915, and shared the retreat of the Serbs through Albania. When, however, the exiled Government established itself at Corfu, he and most of his staff were placed on the retired list. He himself withdrew to France. He died on May 17 1917 at Nice.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brereton, William (1789-1864)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brereton, John


text:
Page:Peter and Wendy.djvu/201

 CHAPTER XV

"HOOK OR ME THIS TIME"

things happen to all of us on our way through life without our noticing for a time that they have happened. Thus, to take an instance, we suddenly discover that we have been deaf in one ear for we don't know how long, but, say, half an hour. Now such an experience had come that night to Peter. When last we saw him he was stealing across the island with one finger to his lips and his dagger at the ready. He had seen the crocodile pass by without noticing anything peculiar about it, but by and by he remembered that it had not been ticking. At first he thought this eerie, but soon he concluded rightly that the clock had run down.

Without giving a thought to what might be the feelings of a fellow-creature thus abruptly deprived of its closest companion, Peter began to consider how he could turn the catastrophe to his own use; and he decided to tick, so that wild beasts should believe he was the crocodile and let him pass unmolested. He ticked superbly, but with Rh

title: Page:Peter and Wendy.djvu/201


text:
Page:Peter and Wendy.djvu/202

Rh one unforeseen result. The crocodile was among those who heard the sound, and it followed him, though whether with the purpose of regaining what it had lost, or merely as a friend under the belief that it was again ticking itself, will never be certainly known, for, like all slaves to a fixed idea, it was a stupid beast.

Peter reached the shore without mishap, and went straight on, his legs encountering the water as if quite unaware that they had entered a new element. Thus many animals pass from land to water, but no other human of whom I know. As he swam he had but one thought: "Hook or me this time." He had ticked so long that he now went on ticking without knowing that he was doing it. Had he known he would have stopped, for to board the brig by the help of the tick, though an ingenious idea, had not occurred to him.

On the contrary, he thought he had scaled her side as noiseless as a mouse; and he was amazed to see the pirates cowering from him, with Hook in their midst as abject as if he had heard the crocodile.

The crocodile! No sooner did Peter remember it than he heard the ticking. At first he thought the sound did come from the crocodile, and he looked behind him swiftly. Then he realized that he was doing it himself, and in a flash he understood the situation. "How clever of me!" he Rh

title: Page:Peter and Wendy.djvu/202


text:
Page:Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day.djvu/177

 But these, our writers—when one dies, the hours Are hush'd awhile, because they could not save; And smiles and tears, like sunshine cross'd by flowers, Arch an eternal rainbow o'er his grave.

Never forgotten—yet we mourn his loss, As of some friend long loved and deeply tried; Or as of sunshine that has lain across So long, we eem ddeemed [sic] it ne'er would leave our side.

Therefore, when tidings came, how in fair spring Death had seized one whose heart no winter knew, Great sadness fell on us, remembering Days of our youth, when things seem'd fair and true;

When we lay, deep beneath the apple shade, In an old orchard all the afternoon; Above us, pink and white, the blossoms spread; Flowers at our feet, and all around us June.

And then we read the tales of war and Spain; Of revelry and Ireland, sword and gown; Of love that mock'd at bars put up in vain; Of hardihood that trampled danger down;

Proctors and doctors, undergrads, dragoons, Vivandières, and priests, and muleteers gay; Groves dear to maidens, soldiers, stars, and moons, Swept past our fancy in their wild array.

And is he dead, who told so well—whose pen Grew wise, but never dull whose—laughter rang, If not so loud, as genial still as when Among his Dublin monks he drank and sang?

Farewell, Charles Lever! Could fate overlook, But for one other work, thy fruitful days. Farewell ! the world is gloomier. Ill we brook To lose thy voice in Joy's small choir of Praise.

Charles James Lever, the writer of so many brilliant works of fiction, was born in Dublin, in the year 1809. He was educated there at Trinity College, and was originally intended to follow the medical profession; but


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brenton, Edward Pelham


text:
Page:Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day.djvu/174

 Born August 31, 1809; died June 1, 1872.

Two worlds there are in which we live and move— The world of fiction and the world of fact: One of King Magic, whom his subjects love; One of King Fate, wherein we talk and act.

In one, the good men fail, the bad succeed; Age carves its lines too soon on buxom youth: Man falls ignobly in the hour of need, And woman's faith beats down our faith in truth.

Here sickness weakens; here high purpose dies; Here lofty aims are kill'd; hero few are brave; Here, torn by vultures, great Prometheus lies; Here hope is crush'd, work bounded by the grave.

But there, O great magicians! there we dwell, Robed in forgetfulness of present woe, Languid and still, on beds of asphodel, "While the unheeded hours pass by and go.

There beauty fades not, smiles change not to tears, Mirth never palls, and wine doth not destroy; Love is immortal, manhood has no fears; No cloud is there 'tween sunshine and our joy.

O world of fiction! all unreal, yet true— What fit thanks can we frame our debt to meet? And for thy chiefs what crown of praise is due, If any crown is dear to them we greet?

The kings and statesmen pass across the stage They vex the world and us and then they die: Forgotten soon, save where on history's page Dry lists of dead men's names make schoolboys sigh.


text:
Zoonomia/I.Preface

The purport of the following pages is an endeavour to reduce the facts belonging to into classes, orders, genera, and species; and, by comparing them with each other, to unravel the theory of diseases. It happened, perhaps unfortunately for the inquirers into the knowledge of diseases, that other sciences had received improvement previous to their own; whence, instead of comparing the properties belonging to animated nature with each other, they, idly ingenious, busied themselves in attempting to explain the laws of life by those of mechanism and chemistry; they considered the body as an hydraulic machine, and the fluids as passing through a series of chemical changes, forgetting that animation was its essential characteristic.

The great of all things has infinitely diversified the works of his hands, but has at the same time stamped a certain similitude on the features of nature, that demonstrates to us, that the whole is one family of one parent. On this similitude is founded all rational analogy; which, so long as it is concerned in comparing the essential properties of bodies, leads us to many and important discoveries; but when with licentious activity it links together objects, otherwise discordant, by some fanciful similitude; it may indeed collect ornaments for wit and poetry, but philosophy and truth recoil from its combinations.

The want of a theory, deduced from such strict analogy, to conduct the practice of medicine is lamented by its professors; for, as a great number of unconnected facts are difficult to be acquired, and to be reasoned from, the art of medicine is in many instances less efficacious under the direction of its wisest practitioners; and by that busy crowd, who either boldly wade in darkness, or are led into endless error by the glare of false theory, it is daily practised to the destruction of thousands; add to this the unceasing injury which accrues to the public by the perpetual advertisements of pretended nostrums; the minds of the indolent become superstitiously fearful of diseases, which they do not labour under; and thus become the daily prey of some crafty empyric.

A theory founded upon nature, that should bind together the scattered facts of medical knowledge, and converge into one point of view the laws of organic life, would thus on many accounts contribute to the interest of society. It would capacitate men of moderate abilities to practise the art of healing with real advantage to the public; it would enable every one of literary acquirements to distinguish the genuine disciples of medicine from those of boastful effrontery, or of wily address; and would teach mankind in some important situations the knowledge of themselves.

There are some modern practitioners, who declaim against medical theory in general, not considering that to think is to theorize; and that no one can direct a method of cure to a person labouring under disease without thinking, that is, without theorizing; and happy therefore is the patient, whose physician possesses the best theory.

The words idea, perception, sensation, recollection, suggestion, and association, are each of them used in this treatise in a more limited sense than in the writers of metaphysic. The author was in doubt, whether he should rather have substituted new words instead of them; but was at length of opinion, that new definitions of words already in use would be less burthensome to the memory of the reader.

A great part of this work has lain by the writer above twenty years, as some of his friends can testify: he had hoped by frequent revision to have made it more worthy the acceptance of the public; this however his other perpetual occupations have in part prevented, and may continue to prevent, as long as he may be capable of revising it; he therefore begs of the candid reader to accept of it in its present state, and to excuse any inaccuracies of expression, or of conclusion, into which the intricacy of his subject, the general imperfection of language, or the frailty he has in common with other men, may have betrayed him; and from which he has not the vanity to believe this treatise to be exempt.

title: Zoonomia/I.Preface


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brenton, Jahleel


text:
Zoonomia/I.I

SECT. I.

OF MOTION.

The whole of nature may be supposed to consist of two essences or substances; one of which may be termed spirit, and the other matter. The former of these possesses the power to commence or produce motion, and the latter to receive and communicate it. So that motion, considered as a cause, immediately precedes every effect; and, considered as an effect, it immediately succeeds every cause.

The MOTIONS OF MATTER may be divided into two kinds, primary and secondary. The secondary motions are those, which are given to or received from other matter in motion. Their laws have been successfully investigated by philosophers in their treatises on mechanic powers. These motions are distinguished by this circumstance, that the velocity multiplied into the quantity of matter of the body acted upon is equal to the velocity multiplied into the quantity of matter of the acting body.

The primary motions of matter may be divided into three classes, those belonging to gravitation, to chemistry, and to life; and each class has its peculiar laws. Though these three classes include the motions of solid, liquid, and aerial bodies; there is nevertheless a fourth division of motions; I mean those of the supposed ethereal fluids of magnetism, electricity, heat, and light; whose properties are not so well investigated as to be classed with sufficient accuracy.

1st. The gravitating motions include the annual and diurnal rotation of the earth and planets, the flux and reflux of the ocean, the descent of heavy bodies, and other phænomena of gravitation. The unparalleled sagacity of the great has deduced the laws of this class of motions from the simple principle of the general attraction of matter. These motions are distinguished by their tendency to or from the centers of the sun or planets.

2d. The chemical class of motions includes all the various appearances of chemistry. Many of the facts, which belong to these branches of science, are nicely ascertained, and elegantly classed; but their laws have not yet been developed from such simple principles as those above-mentioned; though it is probable, that they depend on the specific attractions belonging to the particles of bodies, or to the difference of the quantity of attraction belonging to the sides and angles of those particles. The chemical motions are distinguished by their being generally attended with an evident decomposition or new combination of the active materials.

3d. The third class includes all the motions of the animal and vegetable world; as well those of the vessels, which circulate their juices, and of the muscles, which perform their locomotion, as those of the organs of sense, which constitute their ideas.

This last class of motion is the subject of the following pages; which, though conscious of their many imperfections, I hope may give some pleasure to the patient reader, and contribute something to the knowledge and to the cure of diseases.

title: Zoonomia/I.I


text:
Zoonomia/I.II

SECT. II.

EXPLANATIONS AND DEFINITIONS.

 * I. Outline of the animal economy.—II. 1. Of the sensorium. 2. Of the brain and nervous medulla. 3. A nerve. 4. A muscular fibre. 5. The immediate organs of sense. 6. The external organs of sense. 7. An idea or sensual motion. 8. Perception. 9. Sensation. 10. Recollection and suggestion. 11. Habit, causation, association, catenation. 12. Reflex ideas. 13. Stimulus defined.

 * As some explanations and definitions will be necessary in the prosecution of the work, the reader is troubled with them in this place, and is intreated to keep them in his mind as he proceeds, and to take them for granted, till an apt opportunity occurs to evince their truth; to which I shall premise a very short outline of the animal economy.

I .— 1. The nervous system has its origin from the brain, and is distributed to every part of the body. Those nerves, which serve the senses, principally arise from that part of the brain, which is lodged in the head; and those, which serve the purposes of muscular motion, principally arise from that part of the brain, which is lodged in the neck and back, and which is erroneously called the spinal marrow. The ultimate fibrils of these nerves terminate in the immediate organs of sense and muscular fibres, and if a ligature be put on any part of their passage from the head or spine, all motion and perception cease in the parts beneath the ligature.

2 . The longitudinal muscular fibres compose the locomotive muscles, whose contractions move the bones of the limbs and trunk, to which their extremities are attached. The annular or spiral muscular fibres compose the vascular muscles, which constitute the intestinal canal, the arteries, veins, glands, and absorbent vessels.

3 . The immediate organs of sense, as the retina of the eye, probably consist of moving fibrils, with a power of contraction similar to that of the larger muscles above described.

4 . The cellular membrane consists of cells, which resemble those of a sponge, communicating with each other, and connecting together all the other parts of the body.

5 . The arterial system consists of the aortal and the pulmonary artery, which are attended through their whole course with their correspondent veins. The pulmonary artery receives the blood from the right chamber of the heart, and carries it to the minute extensive ramifications of the lungs, where it is exposed to the action of the air on a surface equal to that of the whole external skin, through the thin moist coats of those vessels, which are spread on the air-cells, which constitute the minute terminal ramifications of the wind-pipe. Here the blood changes its colour from a dark red to a bright scarlet. It is then collected by the branches of the pulmonary vein, and conveyed to the left chamber of the heart.

6 . The aorta is another large artery, which receives the blood from the left chamber of the heart, after it has been thus aerated in the lungs, and conveys it by ascending and descending branches to every other part of the system; the extremities of this artery terminate either in glands, as the salivary glands, lacrymal glands, &c. or in capillary vessels, which are probably less involuted glands; in these some fluid, as saliva, tears, perspiration, are separated from the blood; and the remainder of the blood is absorbed or drank up by branches of veins correspondent to the branches of the artery; which are furnished with valves to prevent its return; and is thus carried back, after having again changed its colour to a dark red, to the right chamber of the heart. The circulation of the blood in the liver differs from this general system; for the veins which drink up the refluent blood from those arteries, which are spread on the bowels and mesentery, unite into a trunk in the liver, and form a kind of artery, which is branched into the whole substance of the liver, and is called the vena portarum; and from which the bile is separated by the numerous hepatic glands, which constitute that viscus.

7 . The glands may be divided into three systems, the convoluted glands, such as those above described, which separate bile, tears, saliva, &c. Secondly, the glands without convolution, as the capillary vessels, which unite the terminations of the arteries and veins; and separate both the mucus, which lubricates the cellular membrane, and the perspirable matter, which preserves the skin moist and flexible. And thirdly, the whole absorbent system, consisting of the lacteals, which open their mouths into the stomach and intestines, and of the lymphatics, which open their mouths on the external surface of the body, and on the internal linings of all the cells of the cellular membrane, and other cavities of the body.

These lacteal and lymphatic vessels are furnished with numerous valves to prevent the return of the fluids, which they absorb, and terminate in glands, called lymphatic glands, and may hence be considered as long necks or mouths belonging to these glands. To these they convey the chyle and mucus, with a part of the perspirable matter, and atmospheric moisture; all which, after having passed through these glands, and having suffered some change in them, are carried forward into the blood, and supply perpetual nourishment to the system, or replace its hourly waste.

8 . The stomach and intestinal canal have a constant vermicular motion, which carries forwards their contents, after the lacteals have drank up the chyle from them; and which is excited into action by the stimulus of the aliment we swallow, but which becomes occasionally inverted or retrograde, as in vomiting, and in the iliac passion.

II. 1 . The word sensorium in the following pages is designed to express not only the medullary part of the brain, spinal marrow, nerves, organs of sense, and of the muscles; but also at the same time that living principle, or spirit of animation, which resides throughout the body, without being cognizable to our senses, except by its effects. The changes which occasionally take place in the sensorium, as during the exertions of volition, or the sensations of pleasure or pain, are termed sensorial motions.

2 . The similarity of the texture of the brain to that of the pancreas, and some other glands of the body, has induced the inquirers into this subject to believe, that a fluid, perhaps much more subtile than the electric aura, is separated from the blood by that organ for the purposes of motion and sensation. When we recollect, that the electric fluid itself is actually accumulated and given out voluntarily by the torpedo and the gymnotus electricus, that an electric shock will frequently stimulate into motion a paralytic limb, and lastly that it needs no perceptible tubes to convey it, this opinion seems not without probability; and the singular figure of the brain and nervous system seems well adapted to distribute it over every part of the body.

For the medullary substance of the brain not only occupies the cavities of the head and spine, but passes along the innumerable ramifications of the nerves to the various muscles and organs of sense. In these it lays aside its coverings, and is intermixed with the slender fibres, which constitute those muscles and organs of sense. Thus all these distant ramifications of the sensorium are united at one of their extremities, that is, in the head and spine; and thus these central parts of the sensorium constitute a communication between all the organs of sense and muscles.

3 . A nerve is a continuation of the medullary substance of the brain from the head or spine towards the other parts of the body, wrapped in its proper membrane.

4 . The muscular fibres are moving organs intermixed with that medullary substance, which is continued along the nerves, as mentioned above. They are indued with the power of contraction, and are again elongated either by antagonist muscles, by circulating fluids, or by elastic ligaments. So the muscles on one side of the forearm bend the fingers by means of their tendons, and those on the other side of the fore-arm extend them again. The arteries are distended by the circulating blood; and in the necks of quadrupeds there is a strong elastic ligament, which assists the muscles, which elevate the head, to keep it in its horizontal position, and to raise it after it has been depressed.

5 . The immediate organs of sense consist in like manner of moving fibres enveloped in the medullary substance above mentioned; and are erroneously supposed to be simply an expansion of the nervous medulla, as the retina of the eye, and the rete mucosum of the skin, which are the immediate organs of vision, and of touch. Hence when we speak of the contractions of the fibrous parts of the body, we shall mean both the contractions of the muscles, and those of the immediate organs of sense. These fibrous motions are thus distinguished from the sensorial motions above mentioned.

6 . The external organs of sense are the coverings of the immediate organs of sense, and are mechanically adapted for the reception or transmission of peculiar bodies, or of their qualities, as the cornea and humours of the eye, the tympanum of the ear, the cuticle of the finders and tongue.

7 . The word idea has various meanings in the writers of metaphysic: it is here used simply for those notions of external things, which our organs of sense bring us acquainted with originally; and is defined a contraction, or motion, or configuration, of the fibres, which constitute the immediate organ of sense; which will be explained at large in another part of the work. Synonymous with the word idea, we shall sometimes use the words sensual motion in contradistinction to muscular motion.

8 . The word perception includes both the action of the organ of sense in consequence of the impact of external objects, and our attention to that action; that is, it expresses both the motion of the organ of sense, or idea, and the pain or pleasure that succeeds or accompanies it.

9 . The pleasure or pain which necessarily accompanies all those perceptions or ideas which we attend to, either gradually subsides, or is succeeded by other fibrous motions. In the latter case it is termed sensation, as explained in Sect. V. 2, and VI. 2.—The reader is intreated to keep this in his mind, that through all this treatise the word sensation is used to express pleasure or pain only in its active state, by whatever means it is introduced into the system, without any reference to the stimulation of external objects.

10 . The vulgar use of the word memory is too unlimited for our purpose: those ideas which we voluntarily recall are here termed ideas of recollection, as when we will to repeat the alphabet backwards. And those ideas which are suggested to us by preceding ideas are here termed ideas of suggestion, as whilst we repeat the alphabet in the usual order; when by habits previously acquired B is suggested by A, and C by B, without any effort of deliberation.

11 . The word association properly signifies a society or convention of things in some respects similar to each other. We never say in common language, that the effect is associated with the cause, though they necessarily accompany or succeed each other. Thus the contractions of our muscles and organs of sense may be said to be associated together, but cannot with propriety be said to be associated with irritations, or with volition, or with sensation; because they are caused by them, as mentioned in Sect. IV. When fibrous contractions succeed other fibrous contractions, the connection is termed association; when fibrous contractions succeed sensorial motions, the connection is termed causation; when fibrous and sensorial motions reciprocally introduce each other in progressive trains or tribes, it is termed catenation of animal motions. All these connections are said to be produced by habit; that is, by frequent repetition.

12 . It may be proper to observe, that by the unavoidable idiom of our language the ideas of perception, of recollection, or of imagination, in the plural number signify the ideas belonging to perception, to recollection, or to imagination; whilst the idea of perception, of recollection, or of imagination, in the singular number is used for what is termed "a reflex idea of any of those operations of the sensorium."

13 . By the word stimulus is not only meant the application of external bodies to our organs of sense and muscular fibres, which excites into action the sensorial power termed irritation; but also pleasure or pain, when they excite into action the sensorial power termed sensation; and desire or aversion, when they excite into action the power of volition; and lastly, the fibrous contractions which precede association; as is further explained in Sect. XII. 2. 1.

title: Zoonomia/I.II


text: Page:Peter and Wendy.djvu/250

title: Page:Peter and Wendy.djvu/250


text:
Author:Charles James Lever

Works

 * Harry Lorrequer: His Confessions and Experiences (1839)
 * Charles O'Malley: The Irish Dragoon (1841)
 * Jack Hinton, the Guardsman (1842)
 * Tom Burke of "Ours" (1843)
 * Arthur O'Leary: His Wanderings and Ponderings in Many Lands (1844)
 * St. Patrick's Eve (1845)
 * Tales of the Trains: Being Some Chapters of Railroad Romance (1845)
 * The O'Donoghue: A Tale of Ireland Fifty Years Ago (1845)
 * The Knight of Gwynne: A Tale of the Time of the Union (1847)
 * Diary and Notes of Horace Templeton, Esq., Late Secretary of Legation at  (1848)
 * The Confessions of Con. Cregan: The Irish Gil Blas (1849)
 * Roland Cashel (1850)
 * The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life (1852)
 * The Dodd Family Abroad (1854)
 * The Martins of Cro' Martin (1854)
 * The Fortunes of Glencore (1857)
 * Nuts and Nutcrackers (1857)
 * Davenort Dunn: A Man of Our Day (1859)
 * One of Them (1860)
 * Maurice Tiernay, the Soldier of Fortune (1861)
 * "A Fellow-Traveller's Story" in Once a Week, Series 1, VII (1862)
 * Barrington (1863)
 * A Day's Ride: A Life's Romance (1863)
 * Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men and Women and Other Things in General (1864)
 * Luttrell of Arran (1865)
 * Tony Butler (1865)
 * Sir Brook Fossbrooke (1866)
 * The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly (1868)
 * Paul Gosslett's Confessions in Love, Law, and the Civil Service (1868)
 * That Boy of Norcott's (1869)
 * A Rent in a Cloud (1869)
 * Lord Kilgobbin: A Tale of Ireland in Our Own Time (1872)
 * A Rent in a Cloud (1869)
 * Lord Kilgobbin: A Tale of Ireland in Our Own Time (1872)

title: Author:Charles James Lever


text:
Author:Frank Henry Temple Bellew

Works

 * (ilus.) Terence Denville

title: Author:Frank Henry Temple Bellew


text:
Page:Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day.djvu/178

 he soon abandoned physic for literature, and so followed the bent of his great natural genius. From 'Harry Lorrequer,' completed about the year 1836, to 'Lord Kilgobbin,' only recently finished in 'The Cornhill,' Charles Lever wrote a very large number of works of fiction of great merit. His wise and witty essays in 'Blackwood,' under the nom de plume of Cornelius O'Dowd, have been universally admired, as have his numerous contributions to 'All the Year Round,' 'St. Pauls,' and the columns of 'Once a Week.' The proximate cause of his death—which took place at Trieste, on the 1st of June 1872—was disease of the heart. This sad event was expected by his relatives and friends, and calmly contemplated by himself. His letters of late were full of allusions to the shattered state of his health, and he often mentioned his belief that he had not long to live. Still his brightness and fun never left him, and he was the good, genial, and amiable Charles Lever to the last days of his life; and every reader of his writings will cordially echo the words of a writer in 'Blackwood,' that 'we have lost in Charles Lever one of those brilliant and cheering lights the extinction of which may be said to "eclipse the gaiety of nations."


text:
Page:The Harvard Classics Vol. 51; Lectures.djvu/352

F HISTORY is to perform properly its function as an agency of instruction, it must be careful to record human events fairly and with accuracy, otherwise the lessons which it asks posterity to draw from the past are sure to be misleading. Now the most reliable sources of information concerning all that has happened in the public life of past generations are of course the contemporary records, the writings of those who had a hand in the events themselves and the public documents which set new historical landmarks. The makers of history are the men most competent to write about it; they are the ones best qualified to interpret their own experience.

These writings are the piers upon which the historian builds his long bridge of narrative, and the historical structure can be no stronger than its foundations. American history is well supplied with them, for it spans a period of only three centuries—three modern centuries in which men have written much concerning the outstanding events of their own day. Due allowance must of course be made for human shortcomings even in the records left to us by the wisest and most open-minded of writers. But the fact remains that contemporary materials afford the only sure basis on which to build our knowledge of what has gone before. The history of America, accordingly, may be best studied in the chronicles of early explorers, in the narratives of those who first made their homes on this side of the Atlantic, in the colonial charters and later State laws, in the messages and decrees of presidents, the treaties with foreign nations, the decisions of courts, the correspondence of public men, or, to put it broadly, in the great mass of official and unofficial writings which constitute the public literature of the New World.


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brechin, David


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 far more grandiose than at first he had planned, for his work grew under his hand and, transcending the author's original intent, became a great modern novel which may be read and is generally read with intense interest by countless thousands who know not at all and care not at all that it is an attack upon a literary genre. "Under Cervantes's vagabond pen," says Morel-Fatio, a masterly critic of the work, "governed only by the inspiration of the moment, his 'Don Quixote,' issuing forth from a simple idea [that of ridiculing the novels of chivalry], of which no great development could have been expected, has become little by little the great social novel of the Spain of the beginning of the seventeenth century, in which all that marks this epoch, its sentiments, passions, prejudices, and institutions, has found a place. Hence the powerful interest of the book, which, independently of its value as a work of the imagination, and as an admirable treatise in practical philosophy, possesses in addition the advantage of fixing the state of civilization of a nation at a precise moment of its existence, and of showing us the depths of its conscience."


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Rh

The English settlements in America, during the century and a half of their existence as colonies, encountered many difficult problems. In the earlier years of this period there were troubles with the Indians; in the later years there were almost incessant bickerings with the French colonists to the north. But in due time the redskins were humbled and France was expelled from her American territory. Then there were religious troubles which at times rent the English colonies in twain. Some of these settlements, it is true, had been founded as a protest against ecclesiastical bigotry at home; but that did not make them tolerant of heresy within their own borders. Those who failed to make outward compliance with the established religious practices were in some cases harried out of the land, and a rigid enforcement of this policy in Massachusetts led to the founding of Rhode Island and Connecticut as separate colonies.

Another difficult problem was that of providing a satisfactory frame of civil government. Every colony had its own series of experiments embodied in charters, fundamental laws, and bodies of liberties. At this historical distance these quaint documents make instructive reading, for they portray with great fidelity the earliest political ideals of the American people. Despite the rigor with which these codes attempted to regulate the daily walk and conversation of citizens, one can nevertheless trace in every line a firm loyalty to the principle that governments should be of laws and not of men. The faith in constitutional guarantees of civil liberty goes back to the very origins of American government.

But the most difficult of all colonial problems was that of determining proper political relations with the motherland. While the colonies were weak and exposed to external dangers these relations gave rise to no acute controversies; but after 1760, when America's economic interests had grown greatly in importance, and when the


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344 treacherous arm of France had been removed from the northern frontiers—then it was that serious estrangements began. Matters which might have been easily adjusted under earlier conditions became sources of open friction and ill-feeling; the breach widened and active resistance to the authority of the home government ensued.

It is to be borne in mind, however, that the causes of the American Revolution were neither superficial nor few. The Declaration of Independence catalogues the colonial grievances as the colonists saw them, and their name is legion.

The thirteen revolted colonies could not very well manage their struggle for independence as a joint enterprise without some form of central government, and a congress of delegates, sitting at Philadelphia, was established to meet this necessity. With no legal basis during the early years of its existence, this congress eventually framed and secured the adoption of the Articles of Confederation which served as a working constitution for the body of States during the next decade. These articles gave very little power to the central government and while they served a useful purpose in their time, facilitating the settlement of matters at the close of the war, it was realized everywhere that they could not afford a permanently satisfactory basis of union.

Two outstanding defects in the Articles of Confederation were the failure to give the central government an assured annual revenue and the lack of any provision for securing uniformity in the regulation of commerce. The urgent necessity of strengthening the articles on these points inspired the calling of a constitutional convention at Philadelphia in the spring of 1787. Most of the leaders of public opinion were members of this convention, among them Washington, Madison, Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin. It was deemed impracticable to secure the desired ends by merely amending the Articles of Confederation; so an entirely new constitution was prepared. The task occupied the entire summer of 1787, and when the document was finished it went to the thirteen States for their approval. In