JTHE CHAUTAUOUAN Vol. XVIII. JANUARY, 1894. No. 4. A MONTHLY MAGAZINE. CONTENTS The Leaning Tower of Pisa Frontispiece. REQUIRED READING In Italy Bishop John H. Vincent. 38; University Settlements The Rev. S. A. Barnett. 392 Military Training in Italy '.. A. Mosso. 39? The Principles and Practice of Debate. First article. J. M. Buckley, LL. D. 402 Sunday Readings Charles Wagner. 407 What is Biology? Professor Franklin P. Mall. 411 Education in Italy Professor Alex. Oldrini. 415 GENERAL READING Aufwiedersehen J. Edmund V. Cooke. 419 The Voyage of “ The Viking.” Professor Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen. 420 Bird Language—A Speculation . .Samuel G. M’Clure,A. M. 424 The Miner and His Perils. Part I Albert Williams, Jr. 429 Social, Artistic,- and Literary Holland. The Rev. William Elliot Griffis, D. D. 433 The Sweet o’ the Year Clinton Scollard. 440 From the Sea to Quito Willard Parker Tisdel. 440 Why We Blush. Camille Melinard. 448 What Makes an Episcopalian ? The Rev. George Hodges, D.l Wills of Some Rich and Famous People. Dr. Harvey L. Biddle WOMAN'S COUNCIE TABLE Women as Inventors Leon Mea Women Keepers for Women Convicts. . . Margaret W. Noble The Carpet Merchant of Damascus. A Story. Morik von Reichenbach. 4.71 The Political Status of Women Jeannette Howard. 477 Social Shams Hester M. Poole. 480 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor’s Outlook : The Immortality of a Name ; How to Im- prove the Condition of the Poor 4S3 Editor’s Note-Book 484 C. E. S. C. WORK C. L- S. C. Outline and Programs. 488 C. L. S. C. Notes and Word Studies 490 Questions and Answers 493 The Question Table 495 The C. L. S. C. Classes 497 Local Circles 49c TIP JjUBRAR F TABEE yifeu&ry; Nei' Year’s Day; A Doomed City; The Old Year p p > amM-he, N-f w ; A Father’s Remorse 50I 'T'allc ktouV Be oks 50c Summary of I nportant News for November, 1893 515 ' Q -cQiutauqua in 1894 -. . . . 514 Tne Chautauq ta Literary and Scientific Circlet 5i( v-, The, Chautauq la College 51S . ’ ' Wink Member 3 Say of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific 0 j Circle. . 52c DR. THEODORE L. FLOOD, Editor, MEADTILLE, PA. NEW YORK, Bible House. LONDON, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., L’t’d., Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road, W. C. DUNDEE, SCOTLAND, Rev. Donald Cook, 6 Albany Terra'- THE CHAUTAUQUAN. Said Tom to Will one pleasant night, While Alice read beneath the light, “ I’ll wager that my wife’s intent On fashions—such is woman’s bent." " Not so,” said Will, “ I think you’ll find Some love-tale occupies her mind." They were both wrong; she was intent On Ivory Soap advertisement. And when she learned that each had lost His wager, she at once indorsed Will’s offer that they both should buy A box of soap for her to try. And since they bought her Ivory Soap She finds that none with it can cope. CorvkicHT 1893. ir The Pkoctb* & Gamble Co. C *4. WHAT IS BIOTOgV? BY PROFESSOR FRANKLIN P. MALL. Of Johns Hopkins University. THK term biology is used in such a variety of ways, and by so many specialists in different lines of work that it is extremely difficult to give a clear definition of it without evoking contradic- tion from many quarters. The reasons for this are very apparent when we consider that a biologist may be a zoologist, botan- ist, etc., or only a biologist in the general sense. This shows that the term, regardless of its origin, has a different meaning according to the kind of specialist that employs it. In addition to this difficulty we have another in the geographical distribution of the various schools of specialists. In dif- ferent countries the term biology is more or less loosely attached to one or the other of the above departments so that, in certain cases, it may be wholly monopolized by any one of them. The general tendency in America is to con- sider biology as composed of botany, zoology, physiology, etc. This is by no means incor- rect since the above branches all deal with living beings and must necessarily include the phenomena of life. If we attempt to de- fine biology from any other standpoint, I fear that little headway will be made. Another definition is the study of a living being as a whole. At first sight the two definitions are diametrically opposed to each other, but more careful consideration shows them to be nearly identical. When the structure and form of a given plant or animal are studied we call it anatomy, or sometimes, as modern usage has decided, morphology. This study may be farther ex- tended into embryology, or the development of a more complex being from a single cell. Now it has been shown that all organisms are composed of but a single cell or of a great colony of cells. This at once compels us to ask ourselves the relation, if any, of the uni- cellular being to the multicellular. We can- not make much headway in this question if we wish to compare all forms of living mat- ter at the same time so it has become neces- sary for certain individuals to study certain tissues ; others to study certain groups, and finally we have developed a science known as comparative anatomy. Going into the problem a step further we find that unicellular and multicellular organ- isms are both independent beings, although the latter arise from a single cell while the former always has been a single cell. We can also place the development of the organisms side by side and find that the more complex beings of a certain class passed through more stages of development than the simpler of the same class. This complexity continues to such an extent that it is often very diffi- cult, in fact often impossible, to compare one organism with another. The above shows that from the anatomy and embryology alone it is impossible to prove that there is any genetic* relation be- tween the various living organisms although the hint is very strong. We have a clear idea of the term anatomy, of either plants or animals, but no one would bf inclined to consider it to be biology. Neithei can we consider the modern physiologist a bi ologist. The same applies to most botanist, and zoologists, although any of the above specialists may deal with biological as well as with physical questions. Only when we consider the living beings as a whole, or when the importance of a part is viewed from the same standpoint are we inclined to call a question biological. The idea then that the study of a living be- ing as a whole is biology gains strength. We can, however, extend the study of morphology through many generations, by direct obser- vation, and at the same time take advantage of the various experiments nature has made for us. The geologist in studying the layers of the earth’s crust has given us the experiment of nature while the breeder of domestic animals has given us many of the data of direct obser- vation. The study of fossils, or paleontology,! has ♦Greek, genesis, origin, source, generation. Relationship by direct descent. f [Pa-le-on t51'o-jy.] The science which treats of the ancient life of the earth or of fossils. 412 WHA T IS BIOLOG Y? naturally dealt with, the more resistant por- tions of plants and animals as they are the more likely to be preserved. In a nutshell, paleontology has confirmed that which com- parative anatomy and embryology have al- ready hinted at. In the deeper strata we find the remnants of the more simple organisms while in the more superficial strata the rem- nants of the more complex organisms are brought to light. Through all these succes- sive geological stages there has been found almost a countless number of intermediate animals and plants no longer living at the present day. Take for instance osteology ;* it is not bi- ology. Neither is comparative osteology bi- ology. But when osteology is studied in con- nection with paleontology it begins to throw light upon living beings as a whole which is a biological question. Many other similar examples in the com- parative anatomy of plants and animals con- nected with embryology or with paleontology, or both, could be given. It also has been found that heat, cold, moisture, and other agents varying on differ- ent portions of the earth have had a marked influence upon the life and form of living be- ings. So the geographical distribution of plants and animals has also played its part in throwing light upon the organisms as a whole and has aided in making the study of botany and zoology biological. Many of the above statements were well known at the beginning of the present cen- tury but were not sufficient arguments to make most naturalists accept evolution as taught at that time. The experiments upon breed- ing were little known and the data not accu- rate until they were systematically studied and tested by Darwin. By direct experi- mentation it was possible to produce such marked varieties of animals and plants that they could almost be considered new species. Physics has long ago told us that coming to conclusions by means of deduction is very liable to lead to error and more liable to lead to discussion than to discovery. It is a re- markable fact that the followers of Darwin have not used his most powerful tool, ex- perimentation, in trying to confirm his theory. Darwin did show that new species could be formed by means of selecting animals and plants in which the variation was great, but it * fOs-te-Cl'o-jy.] The science which treats of the bones of animals. has not been shown, or only to a slight de- gree, what the cause of a certain variation is. When we begin to study living animals and experiment upon them we are dealing with physiology, but to the present date most physiologists have not been experi- menting upon organisms as a whole. They have rather interested themselves with the functions of the different organs and tissues but not with the general principles regarding whole plants and animals. To the extent in which they deal with the organisms as a whole their problems become biological and the physiological botanist deserves greatest praise in this respect. During the last few years also the animal physiologist has contributed to the study of biology and at present the greatest hope in biological investigation lies in his hands. It is useless to hope that the individuals educated only in the descriptive sciences can contribute much to an experimental science for the methods of thinking and investigating are so different and the aims often so widely separated. When by experiment it is possi- ble to compel animals to move to or from the light, when growth can be arrested or acceler- ated by different chemical compounds, when by varying the amount of moisture a wing- less insect can be converted into a winged one it is possible for the physiologist to con- tribute to biology. This has all been done. We may call this environment and not be far amiss, and our artificial means may possibly, under certain circumstances, be produced by the individual itself from generation to gene- ration, and thus cause variation to be con- tinued, i.e., inherited. It is almost an axiom that the offspring is nearly identical with the parent but the axiom was considered of no scientific value until it was called heredity. The causes of variation are to a great extent unknown, but there seems to be a sufficient number of ex- periments to suggest that some direct influ- ence upon the parent may influence the off- spring. The evidence comes, to a great ex- tent, from pathology, or the “ science of dis- ease.” The realm of pathology is so great that we have in its classification practically all the subdivisions of biology, which to- gether are sometimes called pathological bi- ology. If we consider the rule as normal we can consider the exception as abnormal. Pos- sibly in plainer language we can consider embryology the formation of the organism ; WHA T IS BIOLOGY? 413 anatomy, the study of its parts ; physiology, what they do ; and pathology what they do improperly. But when a broken wheel in a machine causes it to run too rapidly we can as well say that it is normal for a pathological machine, as pathological for a normal ma- chine. All variation, however, seems to be brought about (if we accept the natural se- lection theory) by means of the exceptions* or pathology. As soon as the exception is established it no longer remains the patho- logical but becomes the normal. So we see that pathology contributes its great share to biology and therefore must be considered one of the biological sciences. With all of its bearings in medicine it can doubly well add to the study of biology be- cause of the comparative ease in selecting statistics and in the performing of experi- ments which cover the area of a continent. During the last few years pathology has gradually become more and more compara- tive in nature and offers itself better to ex- perimentation than a generation ago. It is very necessary in an experimental science to be able to control all the factors excepting the one we wish to test. An excellent example in pathology is the study of the disease teta- nus, or lockjaw. It was known for a long time that in some cases of lockjaw there was an accompanying wound; in others not. These two varieties of tetanus were called traumatic* and Idiopathicf respectively. Before any further observation was made it was surmised by careful clinicians J that there could be but one kind of tetanus and it must be the one associated with a wound. Later it was discovered that the wounds accompanying tetanus were usually filled with dirt and the experimenters be- gan to look to it for the cause of lockjaw. By inoculating garden soil under the skin of rats it was possible to produce tetanus in them and somewhat later the germ was dis- covered. The germ was next employed and experimenters were soon able to produce the disease in any number of animals and mi- croscopic study showed that the wound in human tetanus also contained a germ which was identical with the one obtained from garden soil. This did not satisfy the investigator and it was soon discovered that the germ produced an albuminoid com- pound which produced all the symptoms of the disease in animals poisoned with it. So it is not the germ which produces the dis- ease but a poison excreted by it. Pathologists know that diseases may be cured, or at least patients often get well. So they began to experiment with the blood of an animal which had survived tetanus, as well as with the products of the tetanus germ on blood outside ot the body, and soon were able to make healthy animals immune* from the disease by a method of vaccination. This series of experiments made by a host of investigators in botany, chemistry, hy- giene, pathology, histology,f and bacteriol- ogy, is not only of the greatest benefit to man- kind but is also biological from beginning to end. The above discoveries do not apply to teta- nus alone but to many other kinds of diseases investigated during the last ten years. At one time it seemed as if tuberculosis J would also fall in with the list under control and in- vestigators in bacteriology are now as hopeful as ever regarding it. During the last year it seems as if the germs of cholera and diphthe- ria had also fallen into the hands of their enemy and will soon be, we hope, completely under control. Bacteriology, the study of the lowest forms of vegetable life, is the great science which has accomplished so much. Scarcely twenty years old, it has revolutionized surgery and medicine and promises to do much for biology and mankind. There are no better objects than bacteria upon which to study heredity. It is possible to change their powers with great ease and this power is inherited for thousands of generations. When certain disease-producing germs are once weakened they no longer destroy the animal into which they are inoculated but often produce a certain change so that when the virulent germ comes it no longer has any effect. This is one of the phases of immunity. And as heredity is one •A word in rare use, meaning exempt; specially, pro- tected by inoculation. f“ That branch of anatomy which is concerned with the structure, especially the microscopic structure, of the various tissues cf the body.” | [Tu-ber-ku-16'sls.] A disease affecting most of the tissues of the body, characterized by the formation of tubercles, or swellings, and the presence in the diseased parts of the tubercle bacillus. *[Traw-m2t-ik.] From the Greek word for wound. Of or pertaining to wounds. t [Id-i-o-path'ik ] A word derived from Greek, meaning feeling for oneself alone, affected in a peculiar way. J[Kli-nish'an.] One who makes a practical study of disease in the persons of those afflicted by it. 414 WHA T IS MO LOG Yf of the great problems in biology so is im- munity the great one in medicine. But immunity is a biological problem as much as heredity. In fact rational medicine is nothing else than a biological science. In bacteriology the lowest vegetable forms and the highest animal are the objects which in- terest us most. When the bacterium produces disease in man the changes which take place in both parasite and host are biological, as in both cases we study the individual as a whole. Yet we say that it is disease, or abnormal, for man while it is health, or normal, for the para- site. In this union there is a tendency to de- stroy the host and to favor the parasite. The study of the distribution of bacteria as well as the varieties of animals and plants they may infect is equally as scientific and as biological as the study of the geograph- ical distribution of plants and animals. Another standpoint from which to study bacteria is the one in agricultural chemistry. We have here a variety of aims in view, but the problems are often biological. Its great usefulness is almost as unlimited in this field as it is in medicine. Yet we need not ignore that biology may be as practical in one direc- tion, as physics is in the other. Still these truly biological problems must Interest the investigator more than their immediate prac- tical bearings, for new discoveries must be made before they can be applied. Another biological problem is symbiosis, or the union of two beings for the mutual benefit of each other. Often it seems as if an animal is absolutely dependent upon a plant and in turn the plant upon the animal. In general this is true for all living organisms but the benefit and dependency is usually distributed through many different organisms. Our own society seems to be built up after the same plan, and how could it be otherwise ? A sharp contrast to symbiosis is parasitism or the condition in which one organism is wholly dependent upon the other and the host is in- jured rather than benefited. We see that the biological problems are .solved by the investigators in at least a dozen branches which are of sufficient importance to rank as independent sciences. This shows the great value of biological problems, all of which deal, I think without exception, with the organism as a whole, rather for many than for a single generation. It is conven- ient, but I think wrong, to consider biology simply as a conglomerate of these sciences, as wrong as to consider mathematics as com- posed of physics, astronomy, and chemis- try, simply because the latter constantly have to employ mathematics. Physiology might as well be subdivided into all the branches of medicine because they constantly have to deal with and employ physiological methods. In general then biological problems do not apply to a portion of a single plant or animal but rather to the whole organism for more than one generation. This is the reason why the various sciences dealing with the various portions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms so often touch upon biological questions. The great hope for the future of biology in America rests to a great extent in the organ- ization of biological departments in which are represented all the sciences which deal with biological questions. Nearly all of our lead- ing universities have but a few of the sciences represented in their biological lab- oratories and they will never be on a par with European institutions until biology is greatly strengthened. With such an organi- zation they could not only train students and investigators from many standpoints but also take charge of the first few years of medical education. This is not only necessary before we can hold a proper position in biology but will also aid to a very great extent in develop- ing the science, and at the same time will help materially to raise our standard of med- icine to the dignified position it holds in Europe.