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The New International Encyclopædia/Masons, Free

MASONS,. A secret fraternal organization of worldwide celebrity, and one credited by enthusiastic writers with great antiquity. The Order, however, is now conceded to have been instituted about the early part of the eighteenth century — the pretensions put forth to a date coeval with the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, with King Solomon as the first grand master, being considered by those who have thoroughly investigated the subject as not worthy of credit. The attempt also made to establish a connection between the fraternity and many of the secret cults and organizations, such as the Eleusinian mysteries, the Pythagoreans, the Rosicrucians and others, in the early stages of its existence, has also failed, the utmost accomplished in that direction being the detection of a certain similarity between the symbols and ceremonies of these older institutions and the system of ritual and rule observed by the Masonic Order — circumambulation, the use of aprons, the forty-seventh problem of Euclid, etc. Another consideration which tends to discredit any connection between these older associations and the Freemasons is the fact that the conception of Masonry implies a cosmopolitan brotherhood, which would have been impossible of realization in the earlier ages of the world's history. The more rational and the generally accepted theory regarding the origin of the society of Freemasons is, that it is the successor of the building associations of the Middle Ages of which the Steinmetzen or stonemasons of Germany were a representative. The term

has also been a puzzle to philologists, some claiming that it is Norman French — Frère Maçon (brother mason) — while others maintain the second part of the title to have been derived from the German word Metzen, having the same signification. These early building societies, the precursors of the Masons, are found to have been grouped in the eleventh and twelfth centuries for the most part around the Benedictine monasteries, the abbots being the architects who employed the masons on ecclesiastical buildings and repairs. The development of architectural taste and the acquisition of greater wealth by the Church led to the erection of buildings on a larger and more imposing scale, requiring the association of craftsmen in the various branches of construction for longer periods together. This led to the formation of societies known as the Bauhütten, so called from the wooden booths, where, during the continuance of the work on any particular building, the craftsmen kept their tools, took their meals, and held their meetings. By the latter part of the thirteenth century these societies had increased so in number that a general association of the Bauhütten was formed in Germany, governed by one code of craft laws, acknowledging one set of secret signs and ceremonies, and working under one central authority, the Haupthütte of Strassburg. That there is a certain connection admitted between this organization and the Masonic fraternity may be inferred from the fact that the trade customs and symbolic forms of the Bauhütten have been described by Masonic writers in Europe and America. (See Fort, Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry, Philadelphia, 1887). The requirement most rigidly enforced from the earliest period was secrecy, which was enjoined in the most solemn manner, both journeymen and apprentices being sworn, before initiation, on the Bible, Square and Compasses, to preserve inviolate the secrets of the brotherhood. Membership was at this early period confined strictly to the operative class, who were supposed to preserve the old secrets of Gothic Masonry, but later, in the seventeenth century, it no longer was deemed necessary to restrict membership to craftsmen alone, and, the bars being lowered, gentlemen became eligible. The Haupthütte went out of existence in 1731.

From the Continent of Europe England derived much of her lodge organization. The earlier English associations of operative builders were first called Freemasons in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, because of the freedom granted them to carry on their occupation. From 1607 to 1618 Inigo Jones, under the patronage of Lord Pembroke, was actively engaged in Masonic work, but the civil wars and the agitation caused by the Reformation so materially broke up the Masonic connection that it was not until 1663 that definite steps were taken to put the fraternity on a permanent basis. A general assembly of Masons was held in London in that year, new rules were formulated and statutes enacted, and a formal resolution was passed that Masonic privileges should be no longer confined to the operative Masons. Professional and literary men, those learned in astrology, or alchemy, as well as theoretic geometricians and architects, now identified themselves with the fraternity. This class of membership at first was honorary, whence the term Free and ‘Accepted’ Masons.

The historic period of Freemasonry begins with the formation of what is known as the premier Masonic Grand Lodge of the world in London, England, in 1717. This is generally styled the ‘revival’ of Freemasonry. Prior to that time a Masonic lodge was composed of “any number of brethren assembled at any place for the performance of work, and, when so assembled, were authorized to receive into the Order brothers and fellows, and to practice the rites of Masonry. The Ancient Charges were the only standard for the regulation of their conduct. The master of the lodge was elected pro tempore, and his authority terminated with the dissolution of the meeting over which he had presided, unless the lodge was permanently established at any particular place.” Such lodges are known in Masonic history as time immemorial lodges. On June 24, 1717, four of the old lodges then existing in London constituted themselves into a Grand Lodge, the first Masonic Grand Lodge ever organized, and elected Anthony Sayer their first grand master. George Payne succeeded Sayer as grand master in 1718, and Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers followed in 1719. In 1720 George Payne was again grand master, and in that year compiled for the first time a set of ‘General Regulations,’ which were subsequently revised by Dr. Desaguliers and Rev. James Anderson, a Scotch Presbyterian minister, and were first published in 1723, under the title of “The Charges of a Freemason, extracted from the ancient records of lodges beyond the sea and of those in England, Scotland and Ireland, for the use of lodges in London.” After 1717 new lodges could be created only under a warrant from the Grand Lodge. In 1724 the Grand Lodge of England came into conflict with a time immemorial lodge at York, claiming to have originated at an assembly of Masons in 926. This led to the formation in 1725, by the old Lodge of York, of the ‘Grand Lodge of All England.’ The Grand Lodge of all England, however, appears to have maintained friendly relations with the London Grand Lodge. In 1751 nine lodges owing allegiance to the Grand Lodge of England seceded from that body on the ground that the Grand Lodge suffered subordinate lodges of its jurisdiction to depart from the ancient landmarks of Freemasonry, and organized a ‘Grand Lodge of England, according to old Institutions.’ They styled themselves ‘Ancients,’ and called the members of the Grand Lodge of England ‘Moderns.’ In 1750 Laurence Dermott, the leader of the seceders, published the “Ahiman Rezon,” or Book of Constitutions, which he copied from the constitutions of the original or ‘Modern’ Grand Lodge, and addressed it to ‘The Ancient York Masons in England.’ The Grand Lodge of All England, at York, died in 1792. There then existed in England but two Grand Lodges, the ‘Ancients’ and the ‘Moderns.’ After negotiations extending over a number of years, finally, in 1813, through the efforts of the Duke of Sussex, grand master of the ‘Moderns,’ and his distinguished brother, the Duke of Kent, grand master of the ‘Ancients,’ a permanent union was established under the title of the ‘United Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England,’ by which the fraternity has since been known. Freemasonry has always been favorably considered in England. In 1799, when an act of Parliament was passed directed against seditious societies, an exception

was made in favor of Masonic lodges, which were credited with meeting solely for benevolent purposes. Jews were admitted to membership on the same footing as other religious denominations. The growth and progress of the fraternity has been so marked that there are now in the Grand Lodge of England more than 2000 lodges, a Grand Lodge, sixty provincial Grand Lodges, a Grand Lodge of Mark Masters, a Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, a Great Priory of Knights Templars, and a Supreme Council of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite. A few years after the revival a Committee on Charity was formed and since then Masonic schools have been founded for boys and girls and institutions for the aged and infirm.

In Scotland the early history of the Masons differed in no essential respect from that of other trade crafts. In 1598-99 the statutes and ordinances of the Order to be observed “by all Master Masons as set down by William Shaw, Master of Work to His Majesty, and general wardent of the craft” (see Lyon, History of Freemasonry in Scotland), were published. These ordinances, however, are largely concerned with trade relations. The system of degrees was not developed, but a ‘pass-word’ was adopted. In 1736 a final effort, set on foot fifteen years before by Desaguliers, the organizer of the English Masonic movement, to consolidate the various lodges into a representative body, was successful, and on November 30, 1736, the first general assembly of symbolical Masons was held and a Grand Lodge for Scotland formed. The representative of the family of Saint Clair, which was patron of the Masonic Lodge, was elected first grand master; provincial grand masters were appointed, a general adhesion of Scotch lodges to the new organization was effected, and Saint Andrew's Day was substituted for the day of Saint John the Baptist, the fête day in England. Freemasonry was introduced into Ireland in 1730, when the first lodge was opened at Dublin. The English system and ritual were adopted, but, owing to the fact that the religion of the country is so largely Roman Catholic, Masonry has not made a very marked progress. At the close of the nineteenth century its representation consisted of one Grand Lodge and about 350 lodges.

The first Masonic lodge in France, according to Clavel and other well-authenticated authorities, was established at Dunkirk on October 13, 1721, and was styled ‘L'Amitié et Fraternité.’ The second was organized by Lord Derwentwater in Paris in 1725. It was at first largely patronized by the nobility, but its purpose does not seem to have been of an elevated character, and this, supplemented by the vigorous opposition of the Catholic Church, tended to invest the institution of Masonry with a very unstable character. In 1736 a Grand Lodge was formed, and in 1766 a new Grande-Loge Nationale of France was created (subsequently altered in title to the Grand Orient), and a representative system adopted under which the various lodges were brought into a degree of subordination to the central and authoritative body. Considerable hostility, however, was manifested toward the new organization by the original Grand Lodge, and there was, besides, a conflict between the rituals in use, the Grand Orient following the Scottish rite, while the original Grand Lodge had adopted a wildly superstitious form, fathered by the impostor

Cagliostro. The Revolution practically suspended both organizations, which subsequently were revived and in 1799 became united in one national organization. Hardly had this union been effected when another entering wedge was inserted by the introduction of two new systems of ritual, one the Scottish Philosophical Rite, including the luminous ring and the white and black eagle, and the other the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of thirty-three degrees. Finally, in 1804, a union was again effected between the Grand Orient and the Supreme Council, but since that period the cause of Freemasonry in France has not been as progressive as in other European countries. At the close of the nineteenth century the number of lodges in existence was only about 350. The Grand Orient has ceased to require belief in a personal God as a test of membership. The introduction of Freemasonry into other European countries, notably Spain, Holland, Italy, Austria, Germany, and Russia, took place between 1725 and 1750, but with varying results. In Russia the Masonic lodges have been suppressed, while in Austria-Hungary they merely preserve an existence, owing to the ban of the Church being placed on them.

The introduction of Masonry into America was under the deputation to Daniel Coxe of New Jersey, from the Grand Lodge of England, dated June 5, 1730, which appointed him provincial grand master for Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, ‘for the space of two years.’ While Coxe does not seem to have been active in establishing lodges in his territory, reliable evidence that Saint John's Lodge was founded in Philadelphia in the latter part of 1730 or early in 1731 is found in a letter written by Henry Bell, dated November 17, 1754, in which he speaks of a charter being granted by Daniel Coxe to a number of Philadelphians. The existence of the lodge in 1731 is further proved by the account books of Benjamin Franklin, who sold stationery to and did printing for Saint John's Lodge. The entries bear dates in 1731. Another corroborative proof is found in a ledger of the lodge discovered in 1884, which is called ‘Liber B.’ Its entries begin with June 24, 1731, and consist of amounts paid into the lodge by members. Franklin was made a Mason in January, 1731. In 1733 the Grand Lodge of England granted a deputation to Major Henry Price of Boston, as ‘Provincial Grand Master of Free and Accepted Masons in New England.’ On July 30, 1733, a warrant was granted to form Saint John's Lodge in Boston, Mass. From this beginning, Freemasonry spread throughout the colonies. There also existed a large number of military and traveling lodges, usually attached to regiments or battalions of the British Army, and formed under warrants from the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

When the War of the Revolution came to a successful close the American lodges so created withdrew their allegiance to the parent lodges in England and Scotland and created Grand Lodges in several of the States, and the Order thus became deeply rooted in American soil, where it has continued to grow without interruption other than what is known as the great anti-Masonic movement, which began in 1826 and continued for about ten years, during which period the membership was reduced to a very small number. (See ;

.) The Order is also prospering in British America, while in the republics of South America, where the Catholic religion is in the ascendent, the same influences operate to its hindrance as in the European countries where Church influence is powerful.

A system of what is known as Freemasonry exists among the colored people in America, which, while admitted to be regular, is not recognized by white members of the Order, or their grand and subordinate lodges in this country, although receiving full recognition as to the regularity of their organization from some of the foreign Grand Lodges. The parent lodge was opened in Boston, March 6, 1775, through the exertions of Prince Hall, known in the archives of the Order as the father of Freemasonry among colored men. There were fifteen charter members and the lodge was known as African Lodge. It received a warrant from the Grand Lodge of England in 1784 and was organized as African Lodge No. 429 in 1787, with the rank of a Provincial Grand Lodge and Prince Hall as provincial grand master. This lodge became dormant after the death of the charter members, was subsequently revived, but failed to receive recognition from the Grand Lodge of England. The African Grand Lodge of Boston, now known as Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, was organized in 1808, and there are at the present time in the United States twenty-eight colored Grand Lodges, and one in Ontario, Canada. These are distributed as follows: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia. There also exist among the negroes bodies of the higher degrees of Masonry, viz. Chapters of the Royal Arch, Councils of Royal and Select Masters, Commanderies of Knights Templars, subordinate bodies of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, a Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General, and Temples of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

Concerning the rites, ceremonies, and principles of Freemasonry it should be said that the underlying principle is a belief in a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul. Next to that is the recognition of fraternal obligations among members of the Order. The duties of a Mason are always to be held subordinate to his duty to his God, to his country, and to his fellowmen, a fact not generally credited outside the fraternity, and ignorance of which has led to much of the opposition it has encountered, on account of its being a secret institution. It differs from other secret and beneficial societies in the matter of its beneficiary features, for there is no obligation expressed in the order of procedure set forth as part of its fixed policy. The measure of relief to be extended to fellow members in distress and the participation in any work of charity are matters implied rather than commanded. Some of the lodges voluntarily create funds for charitable purposes, but this is a matter which rests with the particular lodge, which is independent in any line of action it adopts not antagonistic to the objects or principles of the Order. As a rule, the dispensing of

relief is entirely governed by circumstances, and is not circumscribed by conditions of membership in any particular lodge. A sojourning or visiting Mason, in any locality where he may be temporarily staying, if in distress, has a claim on his brother Masons, in accordance with the spirit and teaching of the Masonic fraternity. A system of benevolence has been adopted in many of the American jurisdictions which is characteristic of the fraternity. It is the establishment in different jurisdictions of Masonic homes and infirmaries for the needy and distressed of the Order. The first of these homes was established in 1807 at Louisville, Ky., as the ‘Masonic Widows and Orphans Home and Infirmary.’ Other institutions have been founded in Philadelphia, Chicago, Saint Louis, Nashville, Springfield, Ohio, Wichita, Kan., Waterford, Conn., Burlington, N. J., Richmond, Va., and in Michigan, Texas, and California. Funds have been established in many other jurisdictions either to found homes or to provide a systematic administration of charity. The homes are, like the English institutions, largely supported by voluntary contributions, but in some States a per capita tax is levied upon each Master Mason within the jurisdiction.

The teachings of Freemasonry are symbolical, ceremonial, and allegorical. Rites, almost without number, were formed by degree-makers during the past one hundred and fifty years, but most of them had but a short existence. There are now ten Masonic rites or systems in use throughout the world, all having as their foundation the three symbolic degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. The two rites that are ranked as universal are the York or English rite, and the Ancient Accepted Scottish rite of thirty-three degrees. The English rite comprises the three fundamental symbolic degrees, and the Royal Arch degree, appended in 1813. The English rite has been enlarged and changed in this country and Canada and is known as the American rite. It consists of thirteen degrees, grouped as follows: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason, conferred in symbolic lodges; Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent Master, and Royal Arch, conferred in chapters of Royal Arch Masons; Royal Master, Select Master, and Super-Excellent Master, conferred in councils of Royal and Select Masters; and Orders of the Red Cross, Knight Templar, and Knight of Malta, conferred in commanderies of Knights Templars. Of the thirty-three degrees of the Ancient Accepted Scottish rite the first three or symbolic degrees are never conferred, all control of them and right to use them having been relinquished by the Supreme Councils of the Scottish Rite to the Grand Lodges of the United States and Canada. The degrees from the fourth to the fourteenth are conferred in the Lodge of Perfection; these are Secret Master, Perfect Master, Intimate, Secretary, Provost and Judge, Intendant of the Building, Knight Elect of Nine, Knight Elect of Fifteen, Sublime Knight Elect, Grand Master Architect, Knight of the Ninth Arch, and Perfect and Sublime Mason. The degrees Knight of the East or Sword and Prince of Jerusalem are conferred in councils of Princes of Jerusalem. The degrees of Knight of the East and West and Knight of Rose Croix are conferred in chapters of Rose Croix. In consistories of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret

are conferred the following degrees: Grand Pontiff, Master ad vitam or Master of All Symbolic Lodges, Noachite or Prussian Knight, Knight of the Royal Axe or Prince of Libanus, Chief of the Tabernacle, Prince of the Tabernacle, Knight of the Brazen Serpent, Prince of Mercy, Knight Commander of the Temple, Knight of the Sun or Prince Adept, Knight of Saint Andrew, Knight Kadosh, Inspector Inquisition Commander, and Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret. The thirty-third and last degree, that of Sovereign Grand Inspector-General, is conferred in the Supreme Council upon Masons who have rendered distinguished services to the craft. The English and the Scottish rites are the only two that are practiced in the United States and are recognized by Masons generally. The Scottish rite in the United States is controlled by two bodies, the Supreme Councils of the Northern and Southern Masonic jurisdictions. They are in fraternal communion with each other and with the Supreme Council of France as well as those of England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Central America, Greece, Canada, Cuba, Switzerland, Egypt, Tunis, and Spain. The number of subordinate bodies in these jurisdictions is: Northern Jurisdiction, 239, with a membership of 34,035; Southern Jurisdiction, 267, with a membership of 14.867. There are in addition to the foregoing a number of societies in the United States, which, though not in any sense Masonic in character, yet require as a prerequisite to uniting with them membership in Masonic bodies. The largest and most popular is the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. (See .) Minor organizations are the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, with headquarters at Hamilton, N. Y., and the Independent International Order of Owls, with headquarters at Nashville, Tenn. These societies are purely social organizations, founded for amusement and recreation.

The only society allied to Masonry that receives women into membership is the Order of the Eastern Star. It is not a Masonic body, nor has it ever been recognized by the Masonic fraternity, but its members are composed of Master Masons in good standing, their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters, together with the widows of such Master Masons. The system which admitted women to membership in bodies allied to Freemasonry originated in France about 1730. The bodies were called ‘Lodges of Adoption,’ because each organization was required to be adopted by a Masonic lodge and was under its control. Lodges of adoption are said to have been introduced into this country about 1778, but they never flourished to any extent. As early as 1793 there was an ‘Order of the Eastern Star’ in existence in this country. This organization disappeared early in the last century. The system at present prevailing in the United States was founded in 1868 by Robert Macoy of New York, upon the basis of a ritual developed by Robert Morris, an eminent Masonic writer. There are now in the United States thirty-two Grand Chapters and over 250,000 members.

The Sovereign College of Allied Masonic and Christian Degrees of America is a body of Masons clothed with power to confer academic as

well as ritualistic degrees, the former being given for honorable cause. The highest academic degree conferred is that of Doctor of Universal Masonry, which has been conferred on only five distinguished members of the Order. The ritual of the college comprises the degree of Ark Mariner, Secret Monitor, Tylers of Solomon, Saint Lawrence the Martyr, Knight of Constantinople, Holy and Blessed Order of Wisdom, Trinitarian Knight of Saint John of Patmos. The Order is in fraternal communication with the Grand Council of the Allied Degrees, and the Grand Ark Mariners Council, both of England.

The following table gives the Grand Lodges in the United States and British America, with their respective and total membership brought down to a recent date:

The above American and British American Grand Lodges maintain fraternal relations with the Grand Lodges of Belgium, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Eclectic Union (Frankfort-on-the-Main), England, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, New South Wales, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Porto Rico, Royal York (Berlin), Saxony, Scotland, South Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tasmania, Three Globes (Berlin), Victoria (Australia), Zur Eintracht (Darmstadt), and Zur Sonne (Bayreuth).

Besides what may be called orthodox Masonry there are two other bodies operating in the United States known as those of the Cerneau rite and the Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis, which differ in ritual from the older Orders. The Cerneau Masons, or Sovereign Grand Consistory, founded in 1807 by Joseph Cerneau in affiliation with the Grand Orient of France and enrolled under the Scottish rite, has two consistories in New York City, and a ‘Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand Inspectors-General of the Thirty-third and Last Degree.’ It is not in affiliation with Masonic bodies generally in America and Canada, owing to its connection with the Grand Orient of France, which does not require for admission to membership the necessity of a belief in the existence of a Supreme Being. It has jurisdiction over seventy subordinate consistories of Sublime Princes of the Royal Secret, which are subdivided into Lodges of Perfection,

Councils of Princes of Jerusalem, Chapters of Rose Croix, and Consistories. The Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis was established in Montauban, France, in 1814, by Jacques Etienne Marconis and others. On November 9, 1856, the first organization of the Ancient and Primitive Rite in America was created in New York under the title of ‘A Supreme Council Sublime Masters of the Great Work Ninetieth Degree’ by Jacques Etienne Marconis. On March 1, 1857, he organized a ‘Sovereign Grand Council-General Ninety-fourth Degree’ and granted a charter with full authority for the administration and government of the Order, and on June 21, 1862, a ‘Sovereign Sanctuary Ninety-fifth Degree’ was created in and for the continent of America in affiliation with the Grand Orient of France. The ‘Mystic Temple Grand Council-General Ninety-fourth Degree’ has charge of the State of New York. There are branches in existence for the government of other countries under titles of Sovereign Sanctuaries, viz. for Great Britain and Ireland, Egypt, Rumania, Naples, Palermo, and India.


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 meant, the missel-thrush has increased in numbers in Scotland during the last thirty years, and this has caused a decrease in the numbers of the closely allied song-thrush in the same country. The black rat (Mus rattus) was the common rat of Europe till, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, the large brown rat (Mus decumanus) appeared on the Lower Volga, and thence spread more or less rapidly till it overran all Europe, and generally drove out the black rat, which in most parts is now comparatively rare or quite extinct. This invading rat has now been carried by commerce all over the world, and in New Zealand has completely extirpated a native rat, which the Maoris allege they brought with them from their home in the Pacific; and in the same country a native fly is being supplanted by the European house-fly. In Russia the small Asiatic cockroach has driven away a larger native species; and in Australia the imported hive-bee is exterminating the small stingless native bee.

The reason why this kind of struggle goes on is apparent if we consider that the allied species fill nearly the same place in the economy of nature. They require nearly the same kind of food, are exposed to the same enemies and the same dangers. Hence, if one has ever so slight an advantage over the other in procuring food or in avoiding danger, in its rapidity of multiplication or its tenacity of life, it will increase more rapidly, and by that very fact will cause the other to decrease and often become altogether extinct. In some cases, no doubt, there is actual war between the two, the stronger killing the weaker; but this is by no means necessary, and there may be cases in which the weaker species, physically, may prevail, by its power of more rapid multiplication, its better withstanding vicissitudes of climates, or its greater cunning in escaping the attacks of the common enemies. The same principle is seen at work in the fact that certain mountain varieties of sheep will starve out other mountain varieties, so that the two cannot be kept together. In plants the same thing occurs. If several distinct varieties of wheat are sown together, and the mixed seed resown, some of the varieties which best suit the soil and climate, or are naturally the most fertile, will beat the others and so yield more seed, and will consequently in a few years supplant the other varieties.

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II As an effect of this principle, we seldom find closely allied species of animals or plants living together, but often in distinct though adjacent districts where the conditions of life are somewhat different. Thus we may find cowslips (Primula veris) growing in a meadow, and primroses (P. vulgaris) in an adjoining wood, each in abundance, but not often intermingled. And for the same reason the old turf of a pasture or heath consists of a great variety of plants matted together, so much so that in a patch little more than a yard square Mr. Darwin found twenty distinct species, belonging to eighteen distinct genera and to eight natural orders, thus showing their extreme diversity of organisation. For the same reason a number of distinct grasses and clovers are sown in order to make a good lawn instead of any one species; and the quantity of hay produced has been found to be greater from a variety of very distinct grasses than from any one species of grass.

It may be thought that forests are an exception to this rule, since in the north-temperate and arctic regions we find extensive forests of pines or of oaks. But these are, after all, exceptional, and characterise those regions only where the climate is little favourable to forest vegetation. In the tropical and all the warm temperate parts of the earth, where there is a sufficient supply of moisture, the forests present the same variety of species as does the turf of our old pastures; and in the equatorial virgin forests there is so great a variety of forms, and they are so thoroughly intermingled, that the traveller often finds it difficult to discover a second specimen of any particular species which he has noticed. Even the forests of the temperate zones, in all favourable situations, exhibit a considerable variety of trees of distinct genera and families, and it is only when we approach the outskirts of forest vegetation, where either drought or winds or the severity of the winter is adverse to the existence of most trees, that we find extensive tracts monopolised by one or two species. Even Canada has more than sixty different forest trees and the Eastern United States a hundred and fifty; Europe is rather poor, containing about eighty trees only; while the forests of Eastern Asia, Japan, and Manchuria are exceedingly rich, about a hundred and seventy species being already known. And in all these countries the trees grow


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 , so that in every extensive forest we have a considerable variety, as may be seen in the few remnants of our primitive woods in some parts of Epping Forest and the New Forest.

Among animals the same law prevails, though, owing to their constant movements and power of concealment, it is not so readily observed. As illustrations we may refer to the wolf, ranging over Europe and Northern Asia, while the jackal inhabits Southern Asia and Northern Africa; the tree-porcupines, of which there are two closely allied species, one inhabiting the eastern, the other the western half of North America; the common hare (Lepus timidus) in Central and Southern Europe, while all Northern Europe is inhabited by the variable hare (Lepus variabilis); the common jay (Garrulus glandarius) inhabiting all Europe, while another species (Garrulus Brandti) is found all across Asia from the Urals to Japan; and many species of birds in the Eastern United States are replaced by closely allied species in the west. Of course there are also numbers of closely related species in the same country, but it will almost always be found that they frequent different stations and have somewhat different habits, and so do not come into direct competition with each other; just as closely allied plants may inhabit the same districts, when one prefers meadows the other woods, one a chalky soil the other sand, one a damp situation the other a dry one. With plants, fixed as they are to the earth, we easily note these peculiarities of station; but with wild animals, which we see only on rare occasions, it requires close and long-continued observation to detect the peculiarities in their mode of life which may prevent all direct competition between closely allied species dwelling in the same area.

Our exposition of the phenomena presented by the struggle for existence may be fitly concluded by a few remarks on its ethical aspect. Now that the war of nature is better known, it has been dwelt upon by many writers as presenting so vast an amount of cruelty and pain as to be revolting to our instincts of humanity, while it has proved a stumbling-block in the way of those who would fain believe in an all-wise and


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II benevolent ruler of the universe. Thus, a brilliant writer says: "Pain, grief, disease, and death, are these the inventions of a loving God? That no animal shall rise to excellence except by being fatal to the life of others, is this the law of a kind Creator? It is useless to say that pain has its benevolence, that massacre has its mercy. Why is it so ordained that bad should be the raw material of good? Pain is not the less pain because it is useful; murder is not less murder because it is conducive to development. Here is blood upon the hand still, and all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten it."

Even so thoughtful a writer as Professor Huxley adopts similar views. In a recent article on "The Struggle for Existence" he speaks of the myriads of generations of herbivorous animals which "have been tormented and devoured by carnivores"; of the carnivores and herbivores alike "subject to all the miseries incidental to old age, disease, and over-multiplication"; and of the "more or less enduring suffering," which is the meed of both vanquished and victor. And he concludes that, since thousands of times a minute, were our ears sharp enough, we should hear sighs and groans of pain like those heard by Dante at the gate of hell, the world cannot be governed by what we call benevolence.

Now there is, I think, good reason to believe that all this is greatly exaggerated; that the supposed "torments" and "miseries" of animals have little real existence, but are the reflection of the imagined sensations of cultivated men and women in similar circumstances; and that the amount of actual suffering caused by the struggle for existence among animals is altogether insignificant. Let us, therefore, endeavour to ascertain what are the real facts on which these tremendous accusations are founded.

In the first place, we must remember that animals are entirely spared the pain we suffer in the anticipation of death—a pain far greater, in most cases, than the reality. This leads, probably, to an almost perpetual enjoyment of their lives; since their constant watchfulness against danger, and even their actual flight from an enemy, will be the enjoyable


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2 "You don't want to live down there!" everybody said, with disapprobation writ large upon their faces. "Why, it is said there are places where a man's life isn't worth tu'pence."

"The very places I wish to see," I broke in. "But you can't, you know," was the unfailing rejoinder.

"Which is not what I came to see you about," I answered brusquely, somewhat nettled by their incomprehension. "I am a stranger here, and I want you to tell me what you know of the East End, in order that I may have something to start on."

"But we know nothing of the East End. It


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 exercise of the powers and faculties they possess, unmixed with any serious dread. There is, in the next place, much evidence to show that violent deaths, if not too prolonged, are painless and easy; even in the case of man, whose nervous system is in all probability much more susceptible to pain than that of most animals. In all cases in which persons have escaped after being seized by a lion or tiger, they declare that they suffered little or no pain, physical or mental. A well-known instance is that of Livingstone, who thus describes his sensations when seized by a lion: "Starting and looking half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing on me. I was upon a little height; he caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier-dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of the cat. It causes a sort of dreaminess, in which there was no sense of pain or feeling of terror, though I was quite conscious of all that was happening. It was like what patients partially under the influence of chloroform describe, who see all the operation, but feel not the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round at the beast."

This absence of pain is not peculiar to those seized by wild beasts, but is equally produced by any accident which causes a general shock to the system. Mr. Whymper describes an accident to himself during one of his preliminary explorations of the Matterhorn, when he fell several hundred feet, bounding from rock to rock, till fortunately embedded in a snow-drift near the edge of a tremendous precipice. He declares that while falling and feeling blow after blow, he neither lost consciousness nor suffered pain, merely thinking, calmly, that a few more blows would finish him. We have therefore a right to conclude, that when death follows soon after any great shock it is as easy and painless a death as possible; and this is certainly what happens when an animal is seized by a beast of prey. For the enemy is one which hunts for food, not for pleasure or excitement; and it is doubtful whether any carnivorous animal in a state of nature begins to seek after


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II prey till driven to do so by hunger. When an animal is caught, therefore, it is very soon devoured, and thus the first shock is followed by an almost painless death. Neither do those which die of cold or hunger suffer much. Cold is generally severest at night and has a tendency to produce sleep and painless extinction. Hunger, on the other hand, is hardly felt during periods of excitement, and when food is scarce the excitement of seeking for it is at its greatest. It is probable, also, that when hunger presses, most animals will devour anything to stay their hunger, and will die of gradual exhaustion and weakness not necessarily painful, if they do not fall an earlier prey to some enemy or to cold.

Now let us consider what are the enjoyments of the lives of most animals. As a rule they come into existence at a time of year when food is most plentiful and the climate most suitable, that is in the spring of the temperate zone and at the commencement of the dry season in the tropics. They grow vigorously, being supplied with abundance of food; and when they reach maturity their lives are a continual round of healthy excitement and exercise, alternating with complete repose. The daily search for the daily food employs all their faculties and exercises every organ of their bodies, while this exercise leads to the satisfaction of all their physical needs. In our own case, we can give no more perfect definition of happiness, than this exercise and this satisfaction; and we must therefore conclude that animals, as a rule, enjoy all the happiness of which they are capable. And this normal state of happiness is not alloyed, as with us, by long periods—whole lives often—of poverty or ill-health, and of the unsatisfied longing for pleasures which others enjoy but to which we cannot attain. Illness, and what answers to poverty in animals—continued hunger—are quickly followed by unanticipated and almost painless extinction. Where we err is, in giving to animals feelings and emotions which they do not possess. To us the very sight of blood and of torn or mangled limbs is painful, while the idea of the suffering implied by it


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Rh is over there, somewhere." And they waved their hands vaguely in the direction where the sun on rare occasions may be seen to rise.

"Then I shall go to Cook's," I announced.

"Oh, yes," they said, with relief. "Cook's will be sure to know."

But O Cook, O Thomas Cook & Son, pathfinders and trail-clearers, living sign-posts to all the world and bestowers of first aid to bewildered travellers—unhesitatingly and instantly, with ease and celerity, could you send me to Darkest Africa or Innermost Thibet, but to the East End of London, barely a stone's throw distant from Ludgate Circus, you know not the way!

"You can't do it, you know," said the human emporium of routes and fares at Cook's Cheapside branch. "It is so—ahem—so unusual."

"Consult the police," he concluded authoritatively, when I persisted. "We are not accustomed to taking travellers to the East End; we receive no call to take them there, and we know nothing whatsoever about the place at all."

"Never mind that," I interposed, to save myself from being swept out of the office by his flood of negations. "Here's something you can do for me. I wish you to understand in advance what I intend doing, so that in case of trouble you may be able to identify me."


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 is heartrending. We have a horror of all violent and sudden death, because we think of the life full of promise cut short, of hopes and expectations unfulfilled, and of the grief of mourning relatives. But all this is quite out of place in the case of animals, for whom a violent and a sudden death is in every way the best. Thus the poet's picture of

is a picture the evil of which is read into it by our imaginations, the reality being made up of full and happy lives, usually terminated by the quickest and least painful of deaths.

On the whole, then, we conclude that the popular idea of the struggle for existence entailing misery and pain on the animal world is the very reverse of the truth. What it really brings about, is, the maximum of life and of the enjoyment of life with the minimum of suffering and pain. Given the necessity of death and reproduction—and without these there could have been no progressive development of the organic world,—and it is difficult even to imagine a system by which a greater balance of happiness could have been secured. And this view was evidently that of Darwin himself, who thus concludes his chapter on the struggle for existence: "When we reflect on this struggle, we may console ourselves with the full belief that the war of nature is not incessant, that no fear is felt, that death is generally prompt, and that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply."


text: Darwinism (Wallace)/Chapter II

title: Darwinism (Wallace)/Chapter II


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foundation of the Darwinian theory is the variability of species, and it is quite useless to attempt even to understand that theory, much less to appreciate the completeness of the proof of it, unless we first obtain a clear conception of the nature and extent of this variability. The most frequent and the most misleading of the objections to the efficacy of natural selection arise from ignorance of this subject, an ignorance shared by many naturalists, for it is only since Mr. Darwin has taught us their importance that varieties have been systematically collected and recorded; and even now very few collectors or students bestow upon them the attention they deserve. By the older naturalists, indeed, varieties—especially if numerous, small, and of frequent occurrence—were looked upon as an unmitigated nuisance, because they rendered it almost impossible to give precise definitions of species, then considered the chief end of systematic natural history. Hence it was the custom to describe what was supposed to be the "typical form" of species, and most collectors were satisfied if they possessed this typical form in their cabinets. Now, however, a collection is valued in proportion as it contains illustrative specimens of all the varieties that occur in each species, and in some cases these


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 have been carefully described, so that we possess a considerable mass of information on the subject. Utilising this information we will now endeavour to give some idea of the nature and extent of variation in the species of animals and plants.

It is very commonly objected that the widespread and constant variability which is admitted to be a characteristic of domesticated animals and cultivated plants is largely due to the unnatural conditions of their existence, and that we have no proof of any corresponding amount of variation occurring in a state of nature. Wild animals and plants, it is said, are usually stable, and when variations occur these are alleged to be small in amount and to affect superficial characters only; or if larger and more important, to occur so rarely as not to afford any aid in the supposed formation of new species.

This objection, as will be shown, is utterly unfounded; but as it is one which goes to the very root of the problem, it is necessary to enter at some length into the various proofs of variation in a state of nature. This is the more necessary because the materials collected by Mr. Darwin bearing on this question have never been published, and comparatively few of them have been cited in The Origin of Species; while a considerable body of facts has been made known since the publication of the last edition of that work.

Among the lowest and most ancient marine organisms are the Foraminifera, little masses of living jelly, apparently structureless, but which secrete beautiful shelly coverings, often perfectly symmetrical, as varied in form as those of the mollusca and far more complicated. These have been studied with great care by many eminent naturalists, and the late Dr. W. B. Carpenter in his great work—the Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera—thus refers to their variability: "There is not a single species of plant or animal of which the range of variation has been studied by the collocation and comparison of so large a number of specimens as have passed under the review of Messrs. Williamson, Parker, Rupert Jones, and myself in our studies of the types of this group;" and he states as the result of this extensive comparison of


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III specimens: "The range of variation is so great among the Foraminifera as to include not merely those differential characters which have been usually accounted specific, but also those upon which the greater part of the genera, of this group have been founded, and even in some instances those of its orders."

Coming now to a higher group—the Sea-Anemones—Mr. P. H. Gosse and other writers on these creatures often refer to variations in size, in the thickness and length of the tentacles, the form of the disc and of the mouth, and the character of surface of the column, while the colour varies enormously in a great number of the species. Similar variations occur in all the various groups of marine invertebrata, and in the great sub-kingdom of the mollusca they are especially numerous. Thus, Dr. S. P. Woodward states that many present a most perplexing amount of variation, resulting (as he supposes) from supply of food, variety of depth and of saltness of the water; but we know that many variations are quite independent of such causes, and we will now consider a few cases among the land-mollusca in which they have been more carefully studied.

In the small forest region of Oahu, one of the Sandwich Islands, there have been found about 175 species of land-shells represented by 700 or 800 varieties; and we are told by the Rev. J. T. Gulick, who studied them carefully, that "we frequently find a genus represented in several successive valleys by allied species, sometimes feeding on the same, sometimes on different plants. In every such case the valleys that are nearest to each other furnish the most nearly allied forms; and a full set of the varieties of each species presents a minute gradation of forms between the more divergent types found in the more widely separated localities."

In most land-shells there is a considerable amount of variation in colour, markings, size, form, and texture or striation of the surface, even in specimens collected in the same locality. Thus, a French author has enumerated no less than 198 varieties of the common wood-snail (Helix nemoralis), while of the equally common garden-snail (Helix hortensis) ninety varieties have been described. Fresh-water shells are also


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4 "Ah, I see; should you be murdered, we would be in position to identify the corpse."

He said it so cheerfully and cold-bloodedly that on the instant I saw my stark and mutilated cadaver stretched upon a slab where cool waters trickle ceaselessly, and him I saw bending over and sadly and patiently identifying it as the body of the insane American who would see the East End.

"No, no," I answered; "merely to identify me in case I get into a scrape with the 'bobbies. This last I said with a thrill; truly, I was gripping hold of the vernacular.

"That," he said, "is a matter for the consideration of the Chief Office."

"It is so unprecedented, you know," he added apologetically.

The man at the Chief Office hemmed and hawed. "We make it a rule," he explained, "to give no information concerning our clients."

"But in this case," I urged, "it is the client who requests you to give the information concerning himself."

Again he hemmed and hawed.

"Of course," I hastily anticipated, "I know it is unprecedented, but—"

"As I was about to remark," he went on steadily, "it is unprecedented, and I don't think we can do anything for you."


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44 subject to great variation, so that there is much uncertainty as to the number of species; and variations are especially frequent in the Planorbidæ, which exhibit many eccentric deviations from the usual form of the species—deviations which must often affect the form of the living animal. In Mr. Ingersoll's Report on the Recent Mollusca of Colorado many of these extraordinary variations are referred to, and it is stated that a shell (Helisonia trivolvis) abundant in some small ponds and lakes, had scarcely two specimens alike, and many of them closely resembled other and altogether distinct species.

Among Insects there is a large amount of variation, though very few entomologists devote themselves to its investigation. Our first examples will be taken from the late Mr. T. Vernon Wollaston's book, On the Variation of Species, and they must be considered as indications of very widespread though little noticed phenomena. He speaks of the curious little carabideous beetles of the genus Notiophilus as being "extremely unstable both in their sculpture and hue;" of the common Calathus mollis as having "the hind wings at one time ample, at another rudimentary, and at a third nearly obsolete;" and of the same irregularity as to the wings being characteristic of many Orthoptera and of the Homopterous Fulgoridæ. Mr. Westwood in his Modern Classification of Insects states that "the species of Gerris, Hydrometra, and Velia are mostly found perfectly apterous, though occasionally with full-sized wings."

It is, however, among the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) that the most numerous cases of variation have been observed, and every good collection of these insects affords striking examples. I will first adduce the testimony of Mr. Bates, who speaks of the butterflies of the Amazon valley exhibiting innumerable local varieties or races, while some species showed great individual variability. Of the beautiful Mechanitis Polymnia he says, that at Ega on the Upper Amazons, "it varies not only in general colour and pattern, but also very considerably in the shape of the wings, especially in the male sex." Again, at St. Paulo, Ithomia


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III Orolina exhibits four distinct varieties, all occurring together, and these differ not only in colour but in form, one variety being described as having the fore wings much elongated in the male, while another is much larger and has "the hind wings in the male different in shape." Of Heliconius Numata Mr. Bates says: "This species is so variable that it is difficult to find two examples exactly alike," while "it varies in structure as well as in colours. The wings are sometimes broader, sometimes narrower; and their edges are simple in some examples and festooned in others." Of another species of the same genus, H. melpomene, ten distinct varieties are described all more or less connected by intermediate forms, and four of these varieties were obtained at one locality, Serpa on the north bank of the Amazon. Ceratina Ninonia is another of these very unstable species exhibiting many local varieties which are, however, incomplete and connected by intermediate forms; while the several species of the genus Lycorea all vary to such an extent as almost to link them together, so that Mr. Bates thinks they might all fairly be considered as varieties of one species only.

Turning to the Eastern Hemisphere we have in Papilio Severus a species which exhibits a large amount of simple variation, in the presence or absence of a pale patch on the upper wings, in the brown submarginal marks on the lower wings, in the form and extent of the yellow band, and in the size of the specimens. The most extreme forms, as well as the intermediate ones, are often found in one locality and in company with each other. A small butterfly (Terias hecabe) ranges over the whole of the Indian and Malayan regions to Australia, and everywhere exhibits great variations, many of which have been described as distinct species; but a gentleman in Australia bred two of these distinct forms (T. hecabe and T. Æsiope), with several intermediates, from one batch of caterpillars found feeding together on the same plant. It is therefore very probable that a considerable number of supposed distinct species are only individual varieties.

Cases of variation similar to those now adduced among butterflies might be increased indefinitely, but it is as well to note that such important characters as the neuration of the


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46 wings, on which generic and family distinctions are often established, are also subject to variation. The Rev. R. P. Murray, in 1872, laid before the Entomological Society examples of such variation in six species of butterflies, and other cases have been since described. The larvæ of butterflies and moths are also very variable, and one observer recorded in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society for 1870 no less than sixteen varieties of the caterpillar of the bedstraw hawk-moth (Deilephela galii).

Passing on from the lower animals to the vertebrata, we find more abundant and more definite evidence as to the extent and amount of individual variation. I will first give a case among the Reptilia from some of Mr. Darwin's unpublished MSS., which have been kindly lent me by Mr. Francis Darwin.

"M. Milne Edwards (Annales des Sci. Nat., I ser., tom. xvi. p. 50) has given a curious table of measurements of fourteen specimens of Lacerta muralis; and, taking the length of the head as a standard, he finds the neck, trunk, tail, front and hind legs, colour, and femoral pores, all varying wonderfully; and so it is more or less with other species. So apparently trifling a character as the scales on the head affording almost the only constant characters."

As the table of measurements above referred to would give no clear conception of the nature and amount of the variation without a laborious study and comparison of the figures, I have endeavoured to find a method of presenting the facts to the eye, so that they may be easily grasped and appreciated. In the diagram opposite, the comparative variations of the different organs of this species are given by means of variously bent lines. The head is represented by a straight line because it presented (apparently) no variation. The body is next given, the specimens being arranged in the order of their size from No. 1, the smallest, to No. 14, the largest, the actual lengths being laid down from a base line at a suitable distance below, in this case two inches below the centre, the mean length of the body of the fourteen specimens being two inches. The respective lengths of the neck, legs, and toe of


text:
Author:William J. Duncan

Works

 * History of Independent Royal Arch Lodge No. 2, F. & A. M. of the State of New York (1904)
 * (with Thomas Gaffney Taaffe)

title: Author:William J. Duncan


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III each specimen are then laid down in the same manner at convenient distances apart for comparison; and we see that their variations bear no definite relation to those of the body, and not much to those of each other. With the exception of No. 5, in which all the parts agree in being large, there is a marked independence of each part, shown by the lines often curving in opposite directions; which proves that in those specimens one part is large while the other is small. The actual amount of the variation is very great, ranging from one-sixth of the mean length in the neck to considerably more than a fourth in the hind leg, and this among only fourteen examples which happen to be in a particular museum.

To prove that this is not an isolated case, Professor Milne Edwards also gives a table showing the amount of variation in the museum specimens of six common species of lizards, also taking the head as the standard, so that the comparative variation of each part to the head is given. In the accompanying diagram (Fig. 2) the variations are exhibited by means of lines of varying length. It will be understood that, however much the specimens varied in size, if they had kept the same proportions, the variation line would have been in every case reduced to a point, as in the neck of L. velox which exhibits no variation. The different proportions of the variation lines for each species may show a distinct mode of variation, or may be merely due to the small and differing number of specimens; for it is certain that whatever amount of variation occurs among a few specimens will be greatly increased when a much larger number of specimens are examined. That the amount of variation is large, may be seen by comparing it with the actual length of the head (given below the diagram) which was used as a standard in determining the variation, but which itself seems not to have varied.

Coming now to the class of Birds, we find much more copious evidence of variation. This is due partly to the fact that Ornithology has perhaps a larger body of devotees than any other branch of natural history (except entomology); to the moderate size of the majority of birds; and to the


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50 that the form and dimensions of the wings, tail, beak, and feet offer the best generic and specific characters and can all be easily measured and compared. The most systematic observations on the individual variation of birds have been made by Mr. J. A. Allen, in his remarkable memoir: "On the Mammals and Winter Birds of East Florida, with an examination of certain assumed specific characters in Birds, and a sketch of the Bird Faunæ of Eastern North America," published in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1871. In this work exact measurements are given of all the chief external parts of a large number of species of common American birds, from twenty to sixty or more specimens of each species being measured, so that we are able to determine with some precision the nature and extent of the variation that usually occurs. Mr. Allen says: "The facts of the case show that a variation of from 15 to 20 per cent in general size, and an equal degree of variation in the relative size of different parts, may be ordinarily expected among specimens of the same species and sex, taken at the same locality, while in some cases the variation is even greater than this." He then goes on to show that each part varies to a considerable extent independently of the other parts; so that when the size varies, the proportions of all the parts vary, often to a much greater amount. The wing and tail, for example, besides varying in length, vary in the proportionate length of each feather, and this causes their outline to vary considerably in shape. The bill also varies in length, width, depth, and curvature. The tarsus varies in length, as does each toe separately and independently; and all this not to a minute degree requiring very careful measurement to detect it at all, but to an amount easily seen without any measurement, as it averages one-sixth of the whole length and often reaches one-fourth. In twelve species of common perching birds the wing varied (in from twenty-five to thirty specimens) from 14 to 21 per cent of the mean length, and the tail from 13.8 to 23.4 per cent. The variation of the form of the wing can be very easily tested by noting which feather is longest, which next in length, and so on, the respective feathers being indicated by the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc.,


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The New International Encyclopædia/Mud-Wasp

MUD-WASP, or. Any one of a group of wasps belonging to the old genus Pelopæus, now Sceliphron. They build nests of mud in sheltered places, choosing the cracks of a barn or fence or some sheltered place under the eaves of any wooden building, entering also disused rooms in houses, and sometimes even rooms that are in daily use. The nests consist of a varying number of mud cells placed side by side, usually in a single row, but sometimes in several rows. The cells before completion are packed with a food supply for the future young, and this consists almost invariably of spiders, as many spiders being placed in one cell as the cell will hold. A single egg is laid upon the last spider which has been placed in the cell, and the larva hatching from the egg eats rapidly, consuming the abdomens of the spiders first and subsequently the remainder of their bodies. All of the spiders which have been placed in the cell have been stung and paralyzed by the parent wasp, but many of them are not really dead when the larva reaches them. After the egg is laid and the nest is closed up, new cells are constructed by the same female. The mud or clay with which the nests are constructed is brought in little balls by the aid of the wasp's mandibles, and 20 or more visits are required to complete one cell; so that for the construction of a large nest of 50 cells about 1000 visits must be made by the insect. The larva reaches full growth in a short time, usually ten days or two weeks, and forms a cocoon within the mud cell, the winter being passed in the cocoon, although there may be two or more summer generations, in which case the summer pupal period is short. The group is a large one, and mudwasps are common not only in America and in Europe, but in India and Australia. Consult: Fabre, Insect life (London, 1901); Sharp, Cambridge Natural History, vol. vi. (London, 1901); Howard, The Insect Book (New York, 1902). See also the article and its bibliography.


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III with the outer one. As an example of the irregular variation constantly met with, the following occurred among twenty-five specimens of Dendraeca coronata. Numbers bracketed imply that the corresponding feathers were of equal length.

Here we have five very distinct proportionate lengths of the wing feathers, any one of which is often thought sufficient to characterise a distinct species of bird; and though this is rather an extreme case, Mr. Allen assures us that "the comparison, extended in the table to only a few species, has been carried to scores of others with similar results."

Along with this variation in size and proportions there occurs a large amount of variation in colour and markings. "The difference in intensity of colour between the extremes of a series of fifty or one hundred specimens of any species, collected at a single locality, and nearly at the same season of the year, is often as great as occurs between truly distinct species." But there is also a great amount of individual variability in the markings of the same species. Birds having the plumage varied with streaks and spots differ exceedingly in different individuals of the same species in respect to the size, shape, and number of these marks, and in the general aspect of the plumage resulting from such variations. "In the common


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52 song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), the fox-coloured sparrow (Passerella iliaca), the swamp sparrow (Melospiza palustris), the black and white creeper (Mniotilta varia), the water-wagtail (Seiurus novæboracencis), in Turdus fuscescens and its allies, the difference in the size of the streaks is often very considerable. In the song sparrow they vary to such an extent that in some cases they are reduced to narrow lines; in others so enlarged as to cover the greater part of the breast and sides of the body, sometimes uniting on the middle of the breast into a nearly continuous patch."

Mr. Allen then goes on to particularise several species in which such variations occur, giving cases in which two specimens taken at the same place on the same day exhibited the two extremes of coloration. Another set of variations is thus described: "The white markings so common on the wings and tails of birds, as the bars formed by the white tips of the greater wing-coverts, the white patch occasionally present at the base of the primary quills, or the white band crossing them, and the white patch near the end of the outer tail-feathers are also extremely liable to variation in respect to their extent and the number of feathers to which, in the same species, these markings extend." It is to be especially noted that all these varieties are distinct from those which depend on season, on age, or on sex, and that they are such as have in many other species been considered to be of specific value.

These variations of colour could not be presented to the eye without a series of carefully engraved plates, but in order to bring Mr. Allen's measurements, illustrating variations of size and proportion, more clearly before the reader, I have prepared a series of diagrams illustrating the more important facts and their bearings on the Darwinian theory.

The first of these is intended, mainly, to show the actual amount of the variation, as it gives the true length of the wing and tail in the extreme cases among thirty specimens of each of three species. The shaded portion shows the minimum length, the unshaded portion the additional length in the maximum. The point to be specially noted here is, that in each of these common species there is about the same amount of variation, and that it is so great as to be obvious at a glance.


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The New International Encyclopædia/Muezzin

MUEZ'ZIN, or MUED'DIN (Ar. mu‘adhdhin, one who calls to prayer, from ‘adhdhana, to call to prayer, from ‘adhina, to hear). The Arabic name of the Mohammedan official attached to a mosque, whose duty it is to announce the different times of prayer. His chant (‘adhān) consists

of these words, repeated at intervals: “Allah is great [four times]. I testify that there is no God but Allah [two times]. I testify that Mohammed is the apostle of Allah [two times]. Come to prayers [two times]. Come to salvation [two times]. There is no God but Allah.” The Shiites also say “Come to good works,” and “Prayers are better than sleep” is added before the early morning prayer (fajr). Besides these regular calls, two more are chanted during the night for those pious persons who wish to perform special nightly devotions. In small mosques the ‘adhān is chanted by the imam, and, when the mosque is provided with a minaret, the muezzin ascends it for his chant; in smaller mosques, the chant is made at the side. The office of muezzin is considered a meritorious one, and insures the holder's admission into Paradise.


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54 There is here no question of "minute" or "infinitesimal" variation, which many people suppose to be the only kind of variation that exists. It cannot even be called small; yet from all the evidence we now possess it seems to be the amount which characterises most of the common species of birds.

It may be said, however, that these are the extreme variations, and only occur in one or two individuals, while the great majority exhibit little or no difference. Other diagrams will show that this is not the case; but even if it were so, it would be no objection at all, because these are the extremes among thirty specimens only. We may safely assume that these thirty specimens, taken by chance, are not, in the case of all these species, exceptional lots, and therefore we might expect at least two similarly varying specimens in each additional thirty. But the number of individuals, even in a very rare species, is probably thirty thousand or more, and in a common species thirty, or even three hundred, millions. Even one individual in each thirty, varying to the amount shown in the diagram, would give at least a million in the total population of any common bird, and among this million many would vary much more than the extreme among thirty only. We should thus have a vast body of individuals varying to a large extent in the length of the wings and tail, and offering ample material for the modification of these organs by natural selection. We will now proceed to show that other parts of the body vary, simultaneously, but independently, to an equal amount.

The first bird taken is the common Bob-o-link or Rice-bird (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), and the Diagram, Fig. 4, exhibits the variations of seven important characters in twenty male adult specimens. These characters are—the lengths of the body, wing, tail, tarsus, middle toe, outer toe, and hind toe, being as many as can be conveniently exhibited in one diagram. The length of the body is not given by Mr. Allen, but as it forms a convenient standard of comparison, it has been obtained by deducting the length of the tail from the total length of the birds as given by him. The diagram has been constructed as follows:—The twenty specimens are first arranged in a series according to the body-lengths (which may be


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III to give the size of the bird), from the shortest to the longest, and the same number of vertical lines are drawn, numbered from one to twenty. In this case (and wherever practicable) the body-length is measured from the lower line of the diagram, so that the actual length of the bird is exhibited as well as the actual variations of length. These can be well estimated by means of the horizontal line drawn at the mean between the two extremes, and it will be seen that one-fifth of the total number of specimens taken on either side exhibits a very large amount of variation, which would of course be very much greater if a hundred or more specimens were compared. The lengths of the wing, tail, and other parts are then laid down, and the diagram thus exhibits at a glance the comparative variation of these parts in every specimen as well as the actual amount of variation in the twenty specimens; and we are thus enabled to arrive at some important conclusions.

We note, first, that the variations of none of the parts follow the variations of the body, but are sometimes almost in an opposite direction. Thus the longest wing corresponds to a rather small body, the longest tail to a medium body, while the longest leg and toes belong to only a moderately large body. Again, even related parts do not constantly vary together but present many instances of independent variation, as shown by the want of parallelism in their respective variation-lines. In No. 5 (see Fig. 4) the wing is very long, the tail moderately so; while in No. 6 the wing is much shorter while the tail is considerably longer. The tarsus presents comparatively little variation; and although the three toes may be said to vary in general together, there are many divergencies; thus, in passing from No. 9 to No. 10, the outer toe becomes longer, while the hind toe becomes considerably shorter; while in Nos. 3 and 4 the middle toe varies in an opposite way to the outer and the hind toes.

In the next diagram (Fig. 5) we have the variations in forty males of the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelæus phœniceus), and here we see the same general features. One-fifth of the whole number of specimens offer a large amount of variation either below or above the mean; while the wings, tail, and head vary quite independently of the body. The wing and tail too,


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III though showing some amount of correlated variation, yet in no less than nine cases vary in opposite directions as compared with the preceding species.

The next diagram (Fig. 6), showing the variations of thirty-one males of the Cardinal bird (Cardinalis virginianus), exhibits these features much more strongly. The amount of variation in proportion to the size of the bird is very much greater; while the variations of the wing and tail not only have no correspondence with that of the body but very little with each other. In no less than twelve or thirteen instances they vary in opposite directions, while even where they correspond in direction the amount of the variation is often very disproportionate.

As the proportions of the tarsi and toes of birds have great influence on their mode of life and habits and are often used as specific or even generic characters, I have prepared a diagram (Fig. 7) to show the variation in these parts only, among twenty specimens of each of four species of birds, four or five of the most variable alone being given. The extreme divergence of each of the lines in a vertical direction shows the actual amount of variation; and if we consider the small length of the toes of these small birds, averaging about three-quarters of an inch, we shall see that the variation is really very large; while the diverging curves and angles show that each part varies, to a great extent, independently. It is evident that if we compared some thousands of individuals instead of only twenty, we should have an amount of independent variation occurring each year which would enable almost any modification of these important organs to be rapidly effected.

In order to meet the objection that the large amount of variability here shown depends chiefly on the observations of one person and on the birds of a single country, I have examined Professor Schlegel's Catalogue of the Birds in the Leyden Museum, in which he usually gives the range of variation of the specimens in the museum (which are commonly less than a dozen and rarely over twenty) as regards some of their more important dimensions. These fully support the statement of Mr. Allen, since they show an equal amount of variability when the numbers compared are


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62 sufficient, which, however, is not often the case. The accompanying diagram exhibits the actual differences of size in five organs which occur in five species taken almost at random from this catalogue. Here, again, we perceive that the variation is decidedly large, even among a very small number of specimens; while the facts all show that there is no ground whatever for the common assumption that natural species consist of individuals which are nearly all alike, or that the variations which occur are "infinitesimal" or even "small."

The notion that variation is a comparatively exceptional phenomenon, and that in any case considerable variations occur very rarely in proportion to the number of individuals which do not vary, is so deeply rooted that it is necessary to show by every possible method of illustration how completely opposed it is to the facts of nature. I have therefore prepared some diagrams in which each of the individual birds measured is represented by a spot, placed at a proportionate distance, right and left, from the median line accordingly as it varies in excess or defect of the mean length as regards the particular part compared. As the object in this set of diagrams is to show the number of individuals which vary considerably in proportion to those which vary little or not at all, the scale has been enlarged in order to allow room for placing the spots without overlapping each other.

In the diagram opposite twenty males of Icterus Baltimore are registered, so as to exhibit to the eye the proportionate number of specimens which vary, to a greater or less amount, in the length of the tail, wing, tarsus, middle toe, hind toe, and bill. It will be noticed that there is usually no very great accumulation of dots about the median line which shows the average dimensions, but that a considerable number are spread at varying distances on each side of it.

In the next diagram (Fig. 10), showing the variation among forty males of Agelæus phœniceus, this approach to an equable spreading of the variations is still more apparent; while in Fig. 12, where fifty-eight specimens of Cardinalis


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III virginianus are registered, we see a remarkable spreading out of the spots, showing in some of the characters a tendency to segregation into two or more groups of individuals, each varying considerably from the mean.

In order fully to appreciate the teaching of these diagrams, we must remember, that, whatever kind and amount of variations are exhibited by the few specimens here compared, would be greatly extended and brought into symmetrical form if large numbers—thousands or millions—were subjected to the same process of measurement and registration. We know, from the general law which governs variations from a mean value, that with increasing numbers the range


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64

of variation of each part would increase also, at first rather rapidly and then more slowly; while gaps and irregularities would be gradually filled up, and at length the distribution of the dots would indicate a tolerably regular curve of double curvature like those shown in Fig. 11.

The great divergence


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III of the dots, when even a few specimens are compared, shows that the curve, with high numbers, would be a flat one like the lower curve in the illustration here given. This being the case it would follow that a very large proportion of the total number of individuals constituting a species would diverge considerably from its average condition as regards each part or organ; and as we know from the previous diagrams of variation (Figs. 1 to 7) that each part varies to a considerable extent, independently, the materials constantly ready for natural selection to act upon are abundant in quantity and very varied in kind. Almost any combination of variations of distinct parts will be available, where required; and this, as we shall see further on, obviates one of the most weighty objections which have been urged against the efficiency of natural selection in producing new species, genera, and higher groups.

Owing to the generally large size of this class of animals, and the comparatively small number of naturalists who study them, large series of specimens are only occasionally examined


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66 and compared, and thus the materials for determining the question of their variability in a state of nature are comparatively scanty. The fact that our domestic animals belonging to this group, especially dogs, present extreme varieties not surpassed even by pigeons and poultry among birds, renders it almost certain that an equal amount of variability exists in the wild state; and this is confirmed by the example of a species of squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), of which sixteen specimens, all males and all taken in Florida, were measured and tabulated by Mr. Allen. The diagram here given shows, that, both the general amount of the variation and the independent variability of the several members of the body, accord completely with the variations so common in the class of birds; while their amount and their independence of each other are even greater than usual.

In case it should be objected that the cases of variation hitherto adduced are in the external parts only, and that there is no proof that the internal organs vary in the same manner, it will be advisable to show that such varieties also occur. It is, however, impossible to adduce the same amount of evidence in this class of variation, because the great labour of dissecting large numbers of specimens of the same species is rarely undertaken, and we have to trust to the chance observations of anatomists recorded in their regular course of study.

It must, however, be noted that a very large proportion of the variations already recorded in the external parts of animals necessarily imply corresponding internal variations. When feet and legs vary in size, it is because the bones vary; when the head, body, limbs, and tail change their proportions, the bony skeleton must also change; and even when the wing or tail feathers of birds become longer or more numerous, there is sure to be a corresponding change in the bones which support and the muscles which move them. I will, however, give a few cases of variations which have been directly observed.

Mr. Frank E. Beddard has kindly communicated to me some remarkable variations he has observed in the internal


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68 organs of a species of earthworm (Perionyx excavatus). The normal characters of this species are—

Between two and three hundred specimens were examined, and among them thirteen specimens exhibited the following marked variations:—

Mr. Beddard remarks that all, or nearly all, the above variations are found normally in other genera and species.

When we consider the enormous number of earthworms and the comparatively very small number of individuals examined, we may be sure, not only that such variations as these occur with considerable frequency, but also that still more extraordinary deviations from the normal structure may often exist.

The next example is taken from Mr. Darwin's unpublished MSS.


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III "In some species of Shrews (Sorex) and in some field-mice (Arvicola), the Rev. L. Jenyns (Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. vii. pp. 267, 272) found the proportional length of the intestinal canal to vary considerably. He found the same variability in the number of the caudal vertebræ. In three specimens of an Arvicola he found the gall-bladder having a very different degree of development, and there is reason to believe it is sometimes absent. Professor Owen has shown that this is the case with the gall-bladder of the giraffe."

Dr. Crisp (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1862, p. 137) found the gall-bladder present in some specimens of Cervus superciliaris while absent in others; and he found it to be absent in three giraffes which he dissected. A double gall-bladder was found in a sheep, and in a small mammal preserved in the Hunterian Museum there are three distinct gall-bladders.

The length of the alimentary canal varies greatly. In three adult giraffes described by Professor Owen it was from 124 to 136 feet long; one dissected in France had this canal 211 feet long; while Dr. Crisp measured one of the extraordinary length of 254 feet, and similar variations are recorded in other animals.

The number of ribs varies in many animals. Mr. St. George Mivart says: "In the highest forms of the Primates, the number of true ribs is seven, but in Hylobates there are sometimes eight pairs. In Semnopithecus and Colobus there are generally seven, but sometimes eight pairs of true ribs. In the Cebidæ there are generally seven or eight pairs, but in Ateles sometimes nine" (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1865, p. 568). In the same paper it is stated that the number of dorsal vertebræ in man is normally twelve, very rarely thirteen. In the Chimpanzee there are normally thirteen dorsal vertebræ, but occasionally there are fourteen or only twelve.

Among the nine adult male Orang-utans, collected by myself in Borneo, the skulls differed remarkably in size and proportions. The orbits varied in width and height, the cranial ridge was either single or double, either much or little developed, and the zygomatic aperture varied considerably in


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III size. I noted particularly that these variations bore no necessary relation to each other, so that a large temporal muscle and zygomatic aperture might exist either with a large or a small cranium; and thus was explained the curious difference between the single-crested and the double-crested skulls, which had been supposed to characterise distinct species. As an instance of the amount of variation in the skulls of fully adult male orangs, I found the width between the orbits externally to be only 4 inches in one specimen and fully 5 inches in another.

Exact measurements of large series of comparable skulls of the mammalia are not easily found, but from those available I have prepared three diagrams (Figs. 14, 15, and 16), in order to exhibit the facts of variation in this very important organ. The first shows the variation in ten specimens of the common wolf (Canis lupus) from one district in North America, and we see that it is not only large in amount, but that each part exhibits a considerable independent variability.

In Diagram 15 we have the variations of eight skulls of the Indian Honey-bear (Ursus labiatus), as tabulated by the late Dr. J. E. Gray of the British Museum. For such a small number of specimens the amount of variation is very large—from one-eighth to one-fifth of the mean size,—while there are an extraordinary number of instances of independent variability. In Diagram 16 we have the length and width of twelve skulls of adult males of the Indian wild boar (Sus cristatus), also given by Dr. Gray, exhibiting in both sets of measurements a variation of more than one-sixth, combined with a very considerable amount of independent variability.

The few facts now given, as to variations of the internal parts of animals, might be multiplied indefinitely by a search through the voluminous writings of comparative anatomists. But the evidence already adduced, taken in conjunction with the much fuller evidence of variation in all external organs, leads us to the conclusion that wherever variations are looked for among a considerable number of individuals of the more


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74 common species they are sure to be found; that they are everywhere of considerable amount, often reaching 20 per cent of the size of the part implicated; and that they are to a great extent independent of each other, and thus afford almost any combination of variations that may be needed.

It must be particularly noticed that the whole series of variation-diagrams here given (except the three which illustrate the number of varying individuals) in every case represent the actual amount of the variation, not on any reduced or enlarged scale, but as it were life-size. Whatever number of inches or decimals of an inch the species varies in any of its parts is marked on the diagrams, so that with the help of an ordinary divided rule or a pair of compasses the variation of the different parts can be ascertained and compared just as if the specimens themselves were before the reader, but with much greater ease.

In my lectures on the Darwinian theory in America and in this country I used diagrams constructed on a different plan, equally illustrating the large amount of independent variability, but less simple and less intelligible. The present method is a modification of that used by Mr. Francis Galton in his researches on the theory of variability, the upper line (showing the variability of the body) in Diagrams 4, 5, 6, and 13, being laid down on the method he has used in his experiments with sweet-peas and in pedigree moth-breeding. I believe, after much consideration, and many tedious experiments in diagram-making, that no better method can be adopted for bringing before the eye, both the amount and the peculiar features of individual variability.

Closely connected with those variations of internal and external structure which have been already described, are the changes of habits which often occur in certain individuals or in whole species, since these must necessarily depend upon some corresponding change in the brain or in other parts of the organism; and as these changes are of great importance in relation to the theory of instinct, a few examples of them will be now adduced.


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III The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is a curious parrot inhabiting the mountain ranges of the Middle Island of New Zealand. It belongs to the family of Brush-tongued parrots, and naturally feeds on the honey of flowers and the insects which frequent them, together with such fruits or berries as are found in the region. Till quite recently this comprised its whole diet, but since the country it inhabits has become occupied by Europeans it has developed a taste for a carnivorous diet, with alarming results. It began by picking the sheepskins hung out to dry or the meat in process of being cured. About 1868 it was first observed to attack living sheep, which had frequently been found with raw and bleeding wounds on their backs. Since then it is stated that the bird actually burrows into the living sheep, eating its way down to the kidneys, which form its special delicacy. As a natural consequence, the bird is being destroyed as rapidly as possible, and one of the rare and curious members of the New Zealand fauna will no doubt shortly cease to exist. The case affords a remarkable instance of how the climbing feet and powerful hooked beak developed for one set of purposes can be applied to another altogether different purpose, and it also shows how little real stability there may be in what appear to us the most fixed habits of life. A somewhat similar change of diet has been recorded by the Duke of Argyll, in which a goose, reared by a golden eagle, was taught by its foster-parent to eat flesh, which it continued to do regularly and apparently with great relish.

Change of habits appears to be often a result of imitation, of which Mr. Tegetmeier gives some good examples. He states that if pigeons are reared exclusively with small grain, as wheat or barley, they will starve before eating beans. But when they are thus starving, if a bean-eating pigeon is put among them, they follow its example, and thereafter adopt the habit. So fowls sometimes refuse to eat maize, but on seeing others eat it, they do the same and become excessively fond of it. Many persons have found that their yellow crocuses were eaten by sparrows, while the blue, purple, and white coloured varieties were left untouched; but Mr. Tegetmeier, who grows only these latter colours, found that after


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76 two years the sparrows began to attack them, and thereafter destroyed them quite as readily as the yellow ones; and he believes it was merely because some bolder sparrow than the rest set the example. On this subject Mr. Charles C. Abbott well remarks: "In studying the habits of our American birds—and I suppose it is true of birds everywhere—it must at all times be remembered that there is less stability in the habits of birds than is usually supposed; and no account of the habits of any one species will exactly detail the various features of its habits as they really are, in every portion of the territory it inhabits."

Mr. Charles Dixon has recorded a remarkable change in the mode of nest-building of some common chaffinches which were taken to New Zealand and turned out there. He says: "The cup of the nest is small, loosely put together, apparently lined with feathers, and the walls of the structure are prolonged for about 18 inches, and hang loosely down the side of the supporting branch. The whole structure bears some resemblance to the nests of the hangnests (Icteridæ), with the exception that the cavity is at the top. Clearly these New Zealand chaffinches were at a loss for a design when fabricating their nest. They had no standard to work by, no nests of their own kind to copy, no older birds to give them any instruction, and the result is the abnormal structure I have just described."

These few examples are sufficient to show that both the habits and instincts of animals are subject to variation; and had we a sufficient number of detailed observations we should probably find that these variations were as numerous, as diverse in character, as large in amount, and as independent of each other as those which we have seen to characterise their bodily structure.

The variability of plants is notorious, being proved not only by the endless variations which occur whenever a species is largely grown by horticulturists, but also by the great difficulty that is felt by botanists in determining the limits of species in