J. E. Taylor gives highly instructive examples in that respect, showing that evolution works toward coöperation and altruism, and, what is more, proving that coöperation has invariably worked for the benefit of the individual as well as for that of the community. Speaking of the Leguminosae, he says: Compare the solitary flowers of the lovely grass pea with the minute but similarly constructed flowers collected to form the heads of the clovers and trefoils. No flowers are perhaps more specialized to the visits of the most intelligent of insects than those of clover; but what would they be if they grew singly? Coöperation has been the secret of their success, as, in deed, it is of innumerable species in other orders of plants where the same plan has been adopted." And, after giving many more examples of this principle of coöperation and its unvarying success, Dr. Taylor makes this pregnant remark: "Floral altruism is a fact in the vegetable kingdom, only found in the most differentiated floral societies, just as we meet with it only in the highest-developed of humanity, although we anticipate it will be still more developed as mankind grows out of its lower into its higher life." That the same coöperation exists among animals in innumerable instances is so well known that we should only be burdening our paper with superfluous details by giving cases in point. Let any reader refer to the extremely fascinating experiments made, for instance, by Sir John Lubbock.

Now, what conclusions are we able to draw from our short excursion into the plant and animal kingdoms, which excursion should, however, be prolonged by each reader at his leisure, so that he may be thoroughly convinced of the facts, and consequently of the correctness of such conclusions? Surely none other than these: I That there is a gradual dawning, a gradual manifestation of reason (or reasoning instinct) already distinctly traceable in plant life. 2 That the struggle for life is fiercest among the iowest forms, gradually softening and modifying as these evolve into higher types, and transforming itself ultimately into altruism and cooperation, both plant and animal life showing many and startling cases in support of this fact. 3 That this coöperation is invariably to the benefit and progress of the community.

The next question which we have to consider in our pilgrimage would be this: Can this gradual and continual modification, this tendency toward altruism and coöperation, be traced forward in man? We think it would be an insult to the reader if we were not to say at once that asking the question is already answering it. Indeed, this tendency toward altruism and collectivism has become so pronounced and unmistakable that Mr. Spencer is quite alarmed and has written very powerfully against it, although he is convinced that he is preaching to deat ears, and that collectivism will sooner or later become an accomplished fact. And if all our facts are correct and our reasoning logical, our last and final conclusion from the foregoing would be: That the law underlying the evolutionary process makes for collectivism, and that there is a deeper significance in the old saying that man is a "social animal than we have as yet realized. And this tendency toward collectivism, growing ever stronger as man evolves into higher and higher life, by no means weakens that desire to compete, that love to excel, which nature has so firmly implanted within us, and which is so essential to our advancement that, without it, evolution would, so to speak, come to a standstill. Have we not all a craving to excel, be it in a mental or a physical combat, though there be no reward of any kind attached to such excellence? Why, even the thief, who will so skillfully rob us of our watch or purse, will, under other and more favorable circumstances-where this purer craving, or, as we say, his better nature, has an opportunity to manifest-do a noble act, and rescue a drowning child, or perhaps a paralytic old woman from the burning flames.

And as little as we shall lose our desire to excel, so little need we apprehend that a general free education will raise us all to the same level. But justice will be satisfied, inasmuch as every boy and girl will have the same chance and the same privileges. The genius, the student, the highly endowed will form the aristocracy. We shall have an aristocracy of the mind, instead of one of the purse. It will be an aristocracy in accordance with evolution, in accordance with nature's law, fit to assume the highest offices (the offices of honor) and to direct the affairs of the community for the common good. At present you can not expect men of education and refinement to "hobnob" with the coarse and vulgar. It is against

nature, which says, “Qui se ressemble, s'assemble," and collectivism does not expect it.

We are now in a position to realize the fallacy contained in such unfortunate books as "Social Evolution". (by Mr. Benjamin Kidd) and their kindred. What shall we say of a writer, calling himself an evolutionist, who does not scruple to speak of altruism as a "new" force which was "born" into the world with the Christian religion? If such writers would only study plant and animal life they would not publish such misleading books. They would realize that altruism and coöperation have nothing to do with the religious instinct, although they may be fostered by it, but that they are the working forces of evolution, already traceable deep down in nature, and gradually but securely evolving from among her lowest children.

Based on the facts which we are afraid we have but all too feebly stated-it would almost require the writing of a book to do them full justice-our own conviction is that evolution makes for collectivism. We believe that this collectivism, instead of being feared, should be welcomed. It will not come about by violent means-such means would rather be instrumental in retarding it--but travel along the slow path which is evolution's own. Its advent will be gradual, one advance post falling at a time, and it will be in possession of the whole field before mankind is well aware of its arrival.

Mr. Wyckoff as a Factory Hand

Mr. Walter A. Wyckoff's experiment of leaving his Princeton professorship and becoming an ordinary laborer is almost too well-known to need explanation. His view of the unskilled laborer was given in PUBLIC OPINION for September 2, 1897. The following account of his life in a factory is taken from his second series of articles in Scribner's Magazine.

There is a monotony about piece-work which must take on at times the quality of a maddening horror. I can bear no personal testimony to it, because I did not rise to the position of a piece-worker. The phases of the system which I saw, however, in the limited insight into its practical working to be gained in my range in the factory as a common laborer, impressed me rather with its advantages. Among the daylaborers here there was apparent at once the same deadly uninterest in their work which is characteristic of their class in the present ordering of such labor. The attitude is that of irresponsible school-boys in their feeling of natural hostility to their masters in the mutual struggle over the prescribed tasks. But among the laborers it takes on the tragedy of the relation of grown men to the serious business of their lives. Interest in their work? Not the faintest. Sense of responsibility for it? Not the dimmest. Any day you could see the bearded father of a family shirk his task in a momentary absence of the boss, or steal truant minutes from his time in idling on an errand, with as puerile a spirit as that which prompts a stroke of mischief in school-hours.

The piece-system lifts the labor instantly from this plane to one where the motive of self-interest conspicuously enters. A man is insured from the first of at least the wage of day's labor; his own industry and deftness are then the factors in determining his earnings up to a certain limit. For I soon found that a hand was not free to employ his utmost skill when he becaine an expert. There seemed to be a tacit agreement in each department of the factory as to what should constitute the maximum of day's labor. Below that a man might fall if he chose, but beyond it he was not at liberty to go. And the reason was very obvious. Even a few men in continually passing, by any considerable margin, the accepted daily average would inevitably produce the result of a cut in the pro rata price until wages were down again to the accustomed level. The system gives a man an incentive to work and to develop his skill, but, in its practical operation, it holds him rigorously to the level of mediocre attainment.

It was a very limited view of the factory as a whole that I could get from the post of an unskilled worker in one of its departments. but what growing familiarity was possible served to increase the sense of wonder at the possibilities of such highly organized methods of production. The large, wellventilated rooms, comfortably warmed in winter and admirably supplied with the means of light and air, are a part of the general efficacy of the system, and the untiring dexterity

of the men gives to it its strongly human interest. There is a fascination in their movements which determines the quality of the attractiveness of the whole. You see no feverish haste in the speed with which they work, but rather the even, smooth, unfaltering sureness which is the charm of mastery, and which must be attended by its satisfaction as well. I witnessed this with delight among the men with whom I lived. Conversation at our meals was nearly always of shop; at dinner and supper especially we discussed the details of the day's work. Several of us were employed at constructing binders. Albert was of that number. He was making but little more than the wage of common labor when I first knew him, but his income began to increase with his increasing efficiency, and it was a matter of great, vital interest to us all to hear his reports each day, as he told of a fraction of a binder and then of a whole one in advance upon his previous work, until his daily earnings rose to two dollars and a half, which was accepted in his department as the normal sum.

Besides these elements of personal interest in piece-work as a scheme of labor and the gratification of the sense of effective workmanship. there entered here the stimulus of ambition based upon excellent chances of promotion. The factory-system of production creates strong demand for manual skill, and stronger still for the capacity of administration and control. Why the realization of these facts did not possess more thoroughly the minds of the common laborers, I could not understand. They were strangely impervious to their force, for nothing could have been more noticeable than the alertness of the managing staff in watching for evidences of unusual ability among the men. It was not at all uncommon for a hand who had been taken on as a day-laborer to be promoted, as a result of his intelligence and industry, to some department of piece-work. Nearly every foreman in the factory is said to have begun far down the scale.

All these are of the best class of factory-workers that I came to know. There are other classes quite as clearly defined, and most of them have their representatives about our table. Men, for example, who have an honest interest in their work as such, and who have risen by force of ambition and sheer development of manual skill to good position in the factory, and have there stood still, their congenital qualities incapable, presumably, of higher efficiency. But sadder far than theirs is the case of men who are often best endowed with native cleverness and aptitude, who rise quickly in the scale of promotion, and who might rise far higher than they do but for the curse of their careless living. They know no interest in their work nor pleasure in its doing. To them it is the sordid drudgery by which they gain the means of gratifying their real purposes and desires. With sullen perseverance they endure the torment of labor, with pay-day in view and then Saturday night and Sunday with their mad revels in what they call life. The future is a meaningless word, with no claim upon them beyond the prospect that it holds of more indulgence; the present is their sole concern, and only with reference to what it can be made to yield to ruling passions.

Cooperative Farming

FRANK L. MCVEY, University of Minnesota, in the June Journal of Political Economy, Chicago

A traveler passing through the southern part of Minnesota is impressed with the evidences of prosperity. Especially is this true when his manner of travel permits close observation and inquiry. He finds there farming communities engaged in the dairy business on a large scale, but the noticeable thing is the organization of this business on a coöperative basis. A very good example of the results coming from this industry is seen in Steele county. The soil is a sandy loam, well adapted to grazing purposes. The population numbers some 15,000, of which forty per cent is foreign, largely German and Danish. Nineteen creameries are engaged in the dairy business. All are coöperative concerns. The buildings and machinery of a dairy plant cost from $3,000 to $4.500. The money for the buildings and the purchase of the machinery is borrowed as a general thing. The board of directors in every case had provided a sinking fund by levying a tax of five cents on each hundred pounds of milk brought to the creamery. The debt incurred has been paid, in some instances, at an average rate of $200 per month. The largest creameries have had receipts as high as $45.000 in a single year. The average receipts of the creameries are about $20.000 per year for each. This gives $380.000 for

distribution in Steele county from the dairy business. The net sum distributed is less than this. The expense of carrying on the business is about $2,400 for each creamery. Deducting the expenses of management there is left $354,400 for distribution among the 1,642 patrons of the creamery associations. This gives each member some $215 for his share in the enterprise.

The creameries are governed by an organization very much like a joint stock company. The method of procedure is as follows: The farmers interested meet at a schoolhouse and appoint a committee to ascertain the number of cows in the vicinity. If there are found to be at least five hundred, and their owners are willing to pledge their milk to the creamery, an association is formed with a president, vice-president, secretary, and board of directors. These are empowered to build the factory and start the business. Once a month the officers declare a dividend on the basis of the milk furnished by each patron. The method of collecting the milk is also worthy of remark. The district contributing to the creamery is divided into routes. The farmers on the different routes take turns in hauling the milk to the creamery, so that a journey is made by each man about every seven or eight days.

The results from this industry are remarkable. In the first place, the cash payments for milk have freed the farmer from the system of store pay. He now receives cash for his produce and buys with the freedom that cash gives. In order to hold former customers the storekeeper finds it necessary to keep a larger stock and a better variety. A second result is noticeable in the home life of the farmer. The work and drudgery of butter making is taken from the kitchen, and the women are relieved from a good deal of hard labor. Certainly what has been said here indicates a growing prosperity through the medium of a cooperative industry. There is no reason why the same principle may not be applied to other features of agricultural labor and enable the workers in it to reap richer rewards than they are now doing.

Women and Industries Philadelphia Press

The latest published volume of the Massachusetts census of 1895, compiled under the direction of the Hon. Horace G. Wadlin, contains some suggestive figures as to the growth of private firms and corporations and the number of women partners and stockholders. The total number of private firms in the state in 1895 was 22,482, an increase of 2,097 in the previous ten years, and the number of corporations was 1.686, an increase in the same time of 737. In 1885 there were 26,521 male partners in the private firms in the state and 1,760 female partners. But in 1895 the male partners had increased to 27,653, while the female partners had increased to 2,598. In ten years the male partners increased only 4.27 per cent, but the female partners increased 47.61 per cent. The same disproportion in the growth of the two classes is seen in the stockholders of corporations. The year 1885 saw 30,733 male stockholders in the corporations of the state and 11,572 female stockholders. By 1895 the number of the former had grown to 34,231 and of the latter to 17,369. The percentage of increase of male stockholders was 11.38, while the increase of female stockholders was 50.10 per cent. Taking partners and stockholders together the males increased from 57.254 in 1885 to 61,884 in 1895, or 8.09 per cent, and the females increased from 13,332 in 1885 to 19,976 in 1895. or 49.77 per cent. There is now about one female partner or stockholder to three male partners or stockholders in Massachusetts. This is a significant proof of the growth of woman's interests in industries. The relative value of the partnerships and stocks held by men and women is not given, but it is not probable that it is in the same ratio as the number of partners and stockholders. Notwithstanding this, however, the great increase in the industrial interests of women is plain. If the growth continues the Massachusetts census of 1905 will probably find that one-third of the partners and stockholders in that state are women. The proportion may not be so large in other states, but it is undoubtedly increasing, as women are entering more and more into all the different phases of industrial life.

Various Topics

War Cry (Salv. Army), New York: It is somewhat interesting to note that the general paid a recent visit to the British farm colony, accompanied by Lord Loch, late high commissioner for South Africa, and the Hon. Cecil Rhodes. It is now several years since Mr. Rhodes asked the general to help colonize

Mashonaland. The British War Cry reports that the general has recently received a definite offer of 2,000,000 acres of land, though it is not stated in what country it is located.

Indianapolis News: With thirty-three labor men in the parliament of Belgium, it is not hard to realize how they inaugurated a five-hour day in the printing crafts when the typesetting machines were introduced. Some American thinkers have thought that it was best to destroy the patents that are responsible for the number of unemployed. Out in Nebraska they tried to pass a law prohibiting improved typesetting machines from coming into the state. But of all foolish agitation that against labor-saving machinery is the most unreasonable. Catholic Telegraph, Pittsburg: The British Medical Journal says that "the statistics of suicides in Italy, furnished by the director general of statistics for the year 1897, shows an increase of fifty per cent in ten years. This increase is possibly due to the greater struggle for existence caused by the heavy taxation of the country, and, perhaps also, to the spread of education." A writer in the London Tablet commenting on this passage, suggests that "if for spread of education we read

spread of infidelity' we shall probably be nearer the truth." The New York charity organization society opened its summer school of philanthropy with twenty-six pupils. Of those who were assembled for this novel course of training, two-thirds were women, and all claimed some experience in dealing with the poor. No tuition is charged in this training school, but for the six weeks' course, which is looked upon as the mere introduction to the possibilities of scientific education in philanthropy, each student is expected to work under the direction of the charity organization society.

In New York, last week, thirteen free baths were opened and two more that were not quite in order will be added as soon as necessary repairs and arrangements are completed. Last year 5,062,519 persons patronized the baths during the four months they were open. Of this number, 3,599,201 were males. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays they are exclusively reserved for females, when a matron is in charge. They are open from five in the morning until nine in the evening, and during extreme warm weather all night.

SCIENTIFIC

Experiments on Animal Intelligence

EDWARD THORNDIKE, in Science, New York. Condensed for PUBLIC OPINION The experiments were upon the intelligent acts and habits of a considerable number of dogs, cats, and chicks. The method was to put the animals when hungry in enclosures from which they could escape (and so obtain food) by operating some simple mechanism, e.g., by turning a wooden button that held the door, pulling a loop attached to the bolt, or pressing down a lever. Thus one readily sees what sort of things the animals can learn to do and just how they learn to do them. Although it was of the utmost importance to them to get out of the various boxes and was, therefore, certain that they would use to the full all their mental powers, none of the animals gave any sign of the possession of powers of inference, comparison, or generalization. Moreover, certain of the experiments seem to take the ground from beneath the feet of those who credit reason to animals. For it was found that acts (e.g., opening doors by depressing thumb-latches and turning buttons) which these theorizers have declared incapable of performance by mere accident certainly can be so done. It is, therefore, unnecessary to invoke reasoning to account for these and similar successes with mechanical contrivances, and the argument based on them falls to the ground. Moreover, besides destroying the value of the evidence which has been offered for the presence of reason in animals, the timerecords give us positive evidence that the subjects of these experiments could not reason.

Surely if a cat made the movement from an inference that it would open the door, it ought, when again put in, to make the movement immediately. If its first success was due to an inference, all trials after the first should take a minimum time. And if there were any slightest rudiment of a reasoning faculty, even if no real power of inference, the cat ought at least sometime. in the course of ten or twenty successful trials, to realize that turning that button means getting out, and thenceforth make the movement from a decision, not a mere impulse. There ought, that is, to be a sudden change from the long, irregular times of impulsive activity to irregular minimum time. The

change is as a fact very gradual. Experiments made in another connection show that these animals could not learn to perform even the simplest acts by seeing another do them or by being put through them by the experimenter. They were thus unable to infer that since another by pulling a string obtained fish, they might, or that since fish were gained when I pushed round a bar with their paws it would be gained if they pushed it round themselves.

Experiments were made on imitation by giving the animals a chance to see one of their fellows escape by clawing down a string stretched across the box, and then putting them in the same box alone. It was found that, no matter how many times they saw the act done, they could not thereby learn anything which their own impulsive activity had failed to teach them, and did not learn any more quickly what they would have sooner or later learned by themselves. One important consequence of these results is the resulting differentiation of the primates from the other orders or mammals. If the primates do imitate and the rest do not, we have located a definite step in the evolution of mind and given a new meaning to the line of human ancestry. I do not, however, hold that these results eliminate the possibility of an incipient faculty of imitation among mammals in general. They do deny the advisability of presupposing it without proof, and emphatically deny its presence in anything equivalent to the human form. Finally many actions which seem due to imitation may be modifications of some single instinct, such as that of following.

Perhaps the most valuable of the experiments were those which differentiate the process of association in animals from the ordinary" association by contiguity" of human psychology. A man, if in a room from which he wishes to get out, may think of being outside, think of how he once opened the door, and accordingly go turn the knob and pull the door open. The thought of opening the door is sufficient to arouse the act of opening the door, and in most human association-series the thoughts are the essential and sufficient factors. It has been supposed that the same held true of animals, that if the thought of doing a thing were present an impulse to do it would be readily supplied from a general stock. Such is not the case. None of these animals could form an association leading to an act unless there was included in the association an impulse of its own which led to the act. Thus cats who had been induced to crawl into a box as the first element in a pleasurable association-series soon acquired the habit of crawling in of their own accord, while cats who had been dropped in did not.

66

The cat or dog that is put into a box from which he has escaped thirty or forty times, after an interval of fifty days without any experience with it, will escape quicker than he did in his first experience and will reach a perfect mastery of the association in much fewer trials than he did before, but he will reach it gradually. If he had true memory he would, when put in the box after the interval, after a while think, Oh, yes! pulling this string, let me out," and thenceforth would pull the string as soon as dropped in the box. In the case of genuine memory you either know a thing and do it or forget it utterly and fail to do it at all. So with a man recalling the combination to a safe, for instance. But the memory of the animal is only that of a billiard player who hasn't played for a long interval and who gradually recovers his skill. No billiard player keeps thinking, "Two years ago I hit a ball placed like this in such and such a way." And the cat or dog does not think, "When I was in this box before, I got out by pulling that string." Not only the gradual recovery of skill, but also the actions of the animal show this. In case of an association only partially permanent, the animal claws around the vital spot, or claws feebly and intermittently, or varies its attacks on the loop or what not, by instinctive bitings and squeezings. Memory in animals is permanence of associations, not conscious realization that a certain event or sequence occurred in the past.

So much for some of the experiments and what theoretical consequences they seem directly to involve. The general view which the entire investigation has forced upon me is that animals do not think about things at all, that consciousness is for them always consciousness in its first intention, "pure experience," as Lloyd Morgan says. They feel all their sense-impressions as we feel the sky and water and movements of our body when swimming. They see the thumb-latch as the ball-player sees the ball speeding toward him. They depress the thumbpiece, not because they think about the act, but just because they feel like doing so. And so their mental life never gets beyond the limits of the least noticeable sort of human intellection.

Conception, inference, judgment, memory, self-consciousness, social consciousness, imagination, association, and perception, in the common acceptation of the terms, are all absent from the animal mind.

A Surgeon's View of the Effect of the Modern Rifle Dr. Orlando Ducker, of the American Medical association, who is in Cuba to study the practical aspects of battle-field surgery, has made the following statement based on observations at Guantanamo bay, Cuba, June 19:

The effectiveness of rifles of small caliber, but of great initial velocity, like the Krag-Jörgensen or Mauser, for instance, should be regarded as settled, if we accept the results of the battle of Cusco Mountain, on June 14. One of our soldiers received a flesh wound in the left arm at a distance of two hundred yards. The ball struck just below the elbow as the arm was being extended (semi-flexed). The wound at the entrance was no larger than the bullet, but the exit was a terrible laceration, so great, in fact, that it was supposed, until a minute examination had been made, that an explosive bullet had been used. Of the Spanish soldiers examined one had sustained a comminuted fracture of the fifth and sixth ribs at the anterior curvature. The soldier was evidently stooping and running when struck by the fated bullet, the ball entering the back, below the tenth rib, and ranging upward, striking the inner side of the sixth and the outer side of the fifth rib, shattering them for the space of two inches. The second was a Negro Spanish guerrilla, with the usual thick Negro skull. The wound at entrance was near the middle of the left parietal bone, tearing away the outer table for a quarter of an inch around it, but leaving the inner table intact, except the clean-cut hole, the size of the bullet. The ball passed out through the right orbit, tearing away half of the floor and all of the inner wall-a complete longitudinal fracture of the skull, extending from the ciliary ridge of the right side to the occipital suture on the same side, passing one inch above the wound at entrance. The third Spaniard was one of the regulars, judging from his uniform. He was evidently stooping forward and facing our troops as the ball entered the right frontal bone two inches anterior to the parietal suture, and two and a half inches above the temporal articulation, traversing the brain longitudinally, passing out through the right side of the occipital bone on a line of and midway between the mastoid process and occipital protuberance. The wound at exit was irregular in shape, but one inch by seven-eighths of an inch in size, damaging alike the inner and outer table of the skull.

The wound at entrance was clean cut and the size of the bullet, so far as the inner table was involved, but along the lower margin, extending three-quarters of an inch on either side and one inch below the entrance to the outer table, was torn completely away, as though it had been excavated by a chisel. A complete longitudinal fracture, extending from the roof of the right orbit through the frontal bone, passing half an inch above the wound at entrance to two-thirds the distance of the right parietal, the other extending downward and outward to the middle and posterior margin of the bone. In both cases of wounds of the skull the longitudinal fracture did not communicate with the wound at entrance or exit. In both cases the fracture was parallel to the course of the ball, and complete. A thin-bladed knife was passed through the fractures. The shooting was from six hundred to eight hundred yards, and the fractures were along the line of greatest pressure. Whether a ball passing through the head from side to side will cause a fracture at a right angle to the long diameter of the head or not further investigation will demonstrate. The bursting of the skull is no doubt due to the great velocity of the ball through the brain substance. giving not sufficient time for cell compression. Another fact yet remains to be proved-whether the mortality is greater from the use of the modern or the old style rifles. In the case of our own troops the fatality was greater to the proportion of wounded than formerly. However, that will require further demonstration, as the results of the 14th may have been purely accidental as to fatalities.

There is yet no means of ascertaining the proportion of wounded to the number killed of the Spanish troops during the engagement referred to, but it might be safely assumed that in the case of the Spanish the mortality was also larger than normal. The topography of the region where the fight occurred, and the evidently scanty means of transportation at hand, makes it unlikely that the Spaniards could have removed all their

wounded had there been a great number of them. As a matter of fact, however, not a single wounded Spaniard has been found.

Artificially Grown Pearls

VANE SIMMONS, in the Popular Science News, New York

The method of producing figures and symbols from the freshwater mussel, Dipsas plicatus, of Lake Riwa, central China, has been in vogue many centuries. Superb examples of Buddha, and flat, pearl-like disks,-produced by inserting between the mantle and shell of the mollusk small tin-foil figures of Buddha, or small hemispherical disks which in time become coated by the pearly nacre, are to be seen in collections, such as that of the Field Columbian and other well-known museums. Experiments of a like nature, with the "rough-shelled " unios, of Cedar river, Iowa, have been practiced by the writer, the past three years, with fair success. An average-sized shell, or shells, from a section of the river's bed known to produce brilliantly lustered shells, were allowed to remain in the sun until the valves part. With a quickly inserted wedge in the opening, the shell is immediately dipped in water to sustain life. The operator then carefully lifts the mantle from the shell, and, with a pair of tweezers, drops in a pellet of wax, glass bead, or other small article, that he is desirous of having coated. Care is taken not to strain the muscles by forcing the wedge, while the clam is resisting the intrusion.

After the objects are placed in that part of the mussel showing the best color, the mantle is drawn to place, the wedge removed, and the shell allowed to resume its normal condition. With a sufficient number "fixed" in the above described manner, they are then placed in a pond or bayou, that will not freeze its depth in winter. At the expiration of six months, or one year at most, the unio will have thrown over these irritating foreign substances a nacreous covering that securely fastens them to the shell. Usually about two-thirds of the object thus fastened remains above shell; though it is presumed that in time the natural growth of the shell would entirely efface this. By careful work. it is possible to remove these objects, so as to have considerable pearl-surface, though their commercial value is small, very small indeed, in comparison to more perfect gems.

Rubber from Corn Oil

The latest evidence of the multitudinous uses to which corn can be put is found in a report made recently in the New York Commercial. We extract the following from an interview with the New York agent of the company whose chemists have, according to this report, made a wonderful discovery:

What promises to be one of the most important discoveries of recent years is to be credited to Chicago chemists in the employ of the glucose refining company. This is the production of rubber, from corn oil. The value of this discovery is evident, especially if, as is claimed, the rubber so produced is much cheaper than the present product. E. L. Wemple, the New York agent for the glucose refining company, said to a reporter of the Commercial, that, although the process is still in an experimental stage, its success is confidently expected, as this rubber is derived from vulcanizing the oil of corn, and will prove particularly valuable in the manufacture of mackintoshes, since it is not liable to crack or degenerate with time. Mr. Wemple also said that the new process will be particularly valuable in the manufacture of bicycle tires, as it is thin, durable, and capable of withstanding much more pressure than the kinds now in use. The process

was accidentally discovered several months ago, by one of the chemists in the employ of the company, and five chemists have since been working on it. Perhaps it would not be too much to say that the discovery will revolutionize the rubber trade. If the oil of corn, properly treated and vulcanized, will economically produce a superior article to the product of the South American rubber tree, great changes in many departments of the rubber industry may be foreseen.

Various Topics

The Roentgen society has appointed a committee to inquire into the alleged injuries produced by exposure to Roentgen radiation. In order to obtain accurate information, the committee has prepared a set of questions framed with a view of determining the cause or causes of the injuries received.

The centennial of the discovery of the voltaic pile by Alessandro Volta will be celebrated next year by an international

electrical exhibition, and a national exhibition of the silk industry to be held at his native town, Como, Italy. A congress of electricians will also be held, and the exhibition will be historical as well as representing the most modern applications of electricity.

The sensational announcement made at the hygienic congress at Madrid by Professor Finkler of the Bonn university that he had succeeded in producing albumen artificially has caused pleasant excitement all over the world, except among men of science. These latter are decidedly skeptical concerning the alleged discovery.

The Belgian government has offered a prize of 50,000 francs for the invention of a match paste containing no phosphorus. The competition is international. The paste must offer to the action of shock and friction such a resistance that dangerous explosions will not occur during the process of manufacture, and it must not contain any matter which by its emanations or otherwise may be dangerous during the process of manufacture to the health of the workmen, and fulfill several other conditions. Consul Hughes, of Sonneberg, reports that a new method of preserving freshly killed meats has been discovered by the Danish zoologist, August Fjelstrup. The system has stood a three months' test at the Odense (Danish) company's slaughter houses, in a very satisfactory manner. The animal to be used is first shot or stunned in such a way as not to injure the brain proper. As the animal drops senseless, an assistant cuts down over the heart, opens a ventricle, and allows all the blood to flow out. Immediately thereafter a briny solution, made of coarse or fine salt, more or less strong (according to length of time the meat is to be kept) is injected by means of a powerful syringe through the other ventricle into the veins of the body.

London Industries and Iron: Yet another attempt is being made to convert peat into charcoal. This time electricity is being pressed into the service by M. B. Jebsen, who mounts three cylindrical retorts upon trunnions in a frame carried on rollers. The retorts are lined with asbestos or other non-conductor of electricity and heat, which is wound spirally with an iron wire. Another winding is embedded in asbestos surrounding the core. These wires form suitable resistances for developing heat from the electricity traversing the conductors through the terminals, which are connected at the axles. Vents are established by means of stopcocks, through which moisture and gas are permitted to escape. It is claimed that the turf or peat is thus heated uniformly and thoroughly, as well as more exactly than by the method formerly employed, thus saving destructive burning and insuring a saving of time in production.

RELIGIOUS:

FFLINING

THE CHURCH AND THE WAR

Christian Work in the Army

July Church Economist, New York. Condensed for PUBLIC OPINION Few Christians would question the desirability of supplying regiments, posts, and battleships with chaplains, but there are church people who have wondered, since this war began, whether it is worth while, apart from the mere convenience which the tents afford during the week, to carry on an outside church work at the front; whether much could be accomplished at such times in the way of conversions. The answer, given to a representative of the Church Economist by General O. O. Howard for Camp Alger, Camp Tampa, and Camp Thomas, and by the Rev. R. E. Steele for Key West, is that the devil is at the front, and that in organized form. He is not there merely in the hearts of the enlisted men who make up the regiments of the army, and the crews of the warships. He is there in the shape of organized bands of men who have opened gin mills, brothels, gambling dens, and every conceivable sin haunt. "Under such conditions surely there is a place for the church as an organization,” said Mr. Steele. Mr. Steele was until recently a Y. M. C. A. secretary in a western city. Ordered south, he arrived at Key West a hot afternoon last week at 5.45. The following night he sat on a porch and saw enter by actual count and time, seventy-one men in thirty minutes, a drinking place on the opposite side of the street, the sign of which read, on the side toward the wharf, The First Chance," and on the side toward the city, "The Last Chance." The next day he rented, on his own account, a three-story cigar factory that was for the time vacant, paying $20 down, and sending out that very night some appeals

to fit up the building as a church, to fight the place opposite. Responses to his appeals came, and from the top of his church now floats a church flag visible to all of the ships in the harbor. At Camp Alger, which is in Virginia across the Potomac from Washington, the chaplain whose services are the best attended is Rev. Thomas E. Sherman, of the Fourth Missouri. Chaplain Sherman is the son of General William Tecumseh Sherman. and joined the order of Jesuits some years ago. Last Sunday morning at five o'clock one hundred and sixteen soldiers came to a fasting communion, and knelt on pine boughs before the altar. For the Protestant men in the regiment a service is held in the afternoon, and "Father" Sherman has, for two Sundays to the writer's knowledge, preached excellent sermons, of the practical and helpful, not of the dogmatic or sectarian kind.

men,

At Camp Alger church attendance is compulsory in a few regiments; in most it is optional. There is a great difference in the regiments. In regiments where there are one or two companies made up of college of men nearly all of whom belong to churches when at home-these regiments feel the effects of these companies, and the whole tone is improved. But in regiments where the young church and college men are not massed, and do not therefore make themselves felt in a body, there is a distinctly lower tone. At Camp Alger, Company H, of the Twenty-second Kansas, is composed entirely of college men. There are in the regiment three hundred and fifty-four teachers, preachers, and active young churchmen. They have their choruses, trios, and quartets, and not only contribute to the pleasure of the rest of the men of their regiment, and emphatically raise the tone of all, but they help men in other regiments. They have organized a Sunday-school and a Christian Endeavor society. The One Hundred and Fifty-ninth Indiana is a regiment that has the advantage of the presence of one or two companies made up of superior men. In this regiment the church makes itself felt through the characters of these companies. They have afforded Chaplain Beaver important moral and material support.

The army Christian commission, the officers of which are from the Y. M. C. A., but through which members of all churches are coöperating, now have from eight to twelve tents at Camp Alger, at Camp Thomas, at Tampa, and they are erecting tents at Fernandina, and have just received permission to send men upon warships and to found at Key West a work for the Jacks and marines of the navy. Not all regiments have tents of their own. Usually there is a church tent for each brigade.

There is no mistaking the character of the services which the chaplains and the Y. M. C. A. secretaries are holding. Every preacher whom your representative has so far heard has preached Christ and him crucified. There is little or no sectarianism. But while there is no mistaking the character of the preaching, there is also a discreet disposition not to overdo sermons in number. Hence, entertainments in the way of concerts, comedies, charades, etc., are provided several evenings each week. Conversions are frequent. These are learned of chiefly through men coming to the workers in the church tents, to the preachers whose words have made deep impressions, and to the nurses in the hospitals. Some who have thus spoken publicly of their desire to lead Christian lives are officers, but many more are enlisted men.

Missionary Interests in the War

Zion's Herald (Meth.), Boston

Spain is the lagging hindermost of European nations in the march of civilization and Christianity. Protestantism has had no legal permission within her territory, and scant tolerance even under pressure of nineteenth-century nations. She has excluded Protestant missionaries from her other dependencies, while her state church has presented to pagan savages a hideous caricature of Christianity, cruel and rapacious. It is not strange, therefore, that while we have been looking at the American movement on Manila as a part of a great national campaign, Protestant missionaries along Asia's eastern shore look upon the coming of the American fleet to Manila as the sword of the Lord to smite the man of sin and unbar the gateway for the entrance into those tropic islands of the messengers of the Prince of Peace. Manila as a center is half encircled by a cordon of missionary stations. Japan is fifteen hundred miles to the north. Southward two thousand miles lies the great Australian continent, with hundreds of