426 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



claims to recognition as a great teacher of 

 the nineteenth century. His work is " as dis- 

 tinctively the product of the age of science 

 as Petrarch's of the revival of learning." 

 There is not a mood of the human mind, Dr. 

 Bcrdoe continues, which is beyond the power 

 of this poet to analyze and explain. "Analy- 

 sis with him becomes invective. He is ' the 

 maker,' because he is so great an analyst. 

 Analysis with genius such as his leads to 

 synthesis, and for this he is called a scien- 

 tific poet." His poems teem with instances 

 of the influence which modern scientific dis- 

 coveries have exercised upon his genius, and 

 this possibly is one element in their ob- 

 scurity. As Max Miiller has said that neither 

 Tennyson nor Browning could be understood 

 without an acquaintance with the Greek and 

 Roman classics, so "in Browning's case a 

 knowledge of the physical sciences is also 

 demanded of us ; but this only shows that 

 Browning is in advance of his time, as a 

 leader of men should be. The age can not 

 be very distant when an acquaintance with 

 science will be as common as a knowledge of 

 the ancient classics. Then we shall hear 

 less of Browning's obscurity. Browning's 

 theory of life is eminently in accord with 

 the teachings of .evolution and development." 

 It is scientific because he goes into its pur- 

 pose, and what to the pessimist is infinite 

 mystery is replete with law and order to him. 

 A large number of citations from Brown- 

 ing's poems are given to confirm and illus- 

 trate these positions. 



Recognition of Pictnres by Animals.— A 



correspondent of The Spectator owns a fox- 

 terrier that had been cured of a tendency to 

 run sheep by judicious punishment. Some 

 time afterward the dog, which had been left 

 in a room for a few minutes with an unfin- 

 ished painting of sheep and sheep-dogs in 

 the snow, was found gazing intently at the 

 picture and showing all the signs of canine 

 excitement. As the figures of the sheep 

 were only eight or ten inches in length, the 

 owner believed that the dog must have un- 

 derstood that they were supposed to be at a 

 distance from him. The dogs in the picture 

 he apparently entirely ignored. Another cor- 

 respondent of the same journal tells of a 

 dog who, when shown a life-sized figure of a 

 cat worked in wools on a screen, made a rush 



for it, and but for his master's clutching him 

 firmly by the collar the screen would have 

 been torn to shreds. A cat is also men- 

 tioned who sprang at a bird which her mis- 

 tress had painted on a fire-screen, and a dog, 

 who disliked being washed, that when shown 

 a large picture of a child scrubbing a fox- 

 terrier in a tub turned away his head rue- 

 fully and would not look at his " brother in 

 adversity." These instances are put forward 

 as evidence of animal intelligence. But do 

 they not rather serve as measures of the in- 

 feriority of brute to human intelligence? 

 For the dog or cat in each case was deceived 

 by an artificial representation on the flat 

 which would not deceive a human being. 



Antiquity of Submarine Warfare. — The 



efficiency of submarine mines or batteries 

 and of guard-boats and shore defenses is 

 augmented to a wonderful degree when the 

 two systems are made to supplement one 

 another. The combination of them affords 

 the only means now known for compelling 

 the enemy to long and cautious operations 

 when he would like to carry his purpose at 

 a blow. It is possible to evade or defy ei- 

 ther system alone, but " even the most dash- 

 ing commander would hesitate to run past 

 forts and batteries when every channel is 

 alive with destructive charges." The effi- 

 ciency of mines depends on every part of 

 their arrangement being complete ; and while 

 the laying of them is simple enough, they 

 are in practice subject to difficulties and 

 complications from weather, wind, tides, cur- 

 rents, fogs, and shifting ground, that can not 

 be foreseen. These cunning inventions of ex- 

 plosive engines, rams, and torpedoes, though 

 they seem so new and scientific, had their 

 counterparts in the devices of the past. The 

 spar torpedo-boats were like the Greek fire- 

 boats which were described in the thirteenth 

 century as old. The mobile torpedo-boat 

 had its prototype in those drifting or secretly 

 propelled infernal machines that figured in 

 the water -fights of two or three hundred 

 years ago. Fixed submarine mines were de- 

 scribed by Gianbaptista Porta in 1608. The 

 principles of these systems are old ; all that 

 is new in them is contained in the " modern 

 improvements" and more perfect adaptations. 

 The systematic application of submarine war- 

 fare, however, dates from the second half of 



