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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



of smoking and of billiard rooms, in which the 

 individual members and families may either en- 

 joy more completely than is now possible that 

 amiable social isolation and exclusiveness which 

 we are told is so dear to the true Briton, or, on 

 the other hand, may, without extra trouble or ex- 

 pense, enjoy as much as they wish of the society 

 of their fellow-members — the whole, if conducted 

 on true cooperative principles, to be obtained at 

 a smaller cost than we now pay for our unsatis- 

 factory dwellings and servants, and with the fur- 

 ther gain of an almost complete freedom from 

 household cares. 



It is asserted that English people are too con. 

 servative to adopt so fundamental a revolution 

 in their ideas of dwellings and housekeeping. I 

 answer, the facts show the contrary. Not only 

 are great numbers of people, some from neces- 

 sity, others from choice, more and more living in 

 boarding-houses, hotels, and flats, but the con- 

 tinued success of the well-known mansions in 

 Grosvenor Gardens for the past ten years, of the 

 kindred erections in Victoria Street and else- 

 where, which are being repeated with modern 

 improvements on a considerable scale, as well as 

 the great success of the vast pile at Queen Anne's 

 Gate, is sufficient proof that the British public is 

 ready largely to avail itself of such dwellings 

 and style of living as more or less closely approach 

 the idea of cooperative housekeeping, which it 

 has been my object rather to put on a practical 

 basis than to argue its advantages at length. 

 Though I have discussed the question in this 

 essay as if it were one purely affecting the upper- 



middle and upper classes, with whom it must 

 probably begin, yet the system is even more de- 

 sirable for the lower-middle and lower classes, 

 who are, I believe, relatively more wastefully 

 lodged and fed than their richer neighbors. It 

 is true that the less educated are more preju- 

 diced and less capable of clubbing together than 

 the better educated classes ; but, judging from 

 the success which has attended the efforts to get 

 the artisans to give up their little homes or hov- 

 els for homes in blocks, it will not, I venture to 

 say, be very long before they will see the eco- 

 nomic advantages of a common kitchen and the 

 social advantages of a club-room, which would 

 probably prove a successful and healthy rival to 

 the public-house. 



In the present essay I have confined myself 

 to laying down the principles which I believe are 

 essential to the successful working of wholesale 

 housekeeping. To fully develop the economic 

 and social possibilities of the system, and to an- 

 swer fairly and completely all the objections 

 which timid and conservative people urge against 

 it, would take me far beyond the limits of a 

 magazine article. In conclusion, I venture to say 

 that I have the strongest reasons for believing 

 that, if the public can only once fairly grasp the 

 idea that cooperative housekeeping is no social 

 chimera, but is merely a recombination of the 

 soundest and most successful facts, it will not be 

 long before cooperative mansions are not only 

 very common, but will be regarded as among the 

 very best investments in real property. 



— Nineteenth Century. 



THE COLOES OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 



By ALFRED EUSSEL WALLACE. 



I.— THE COLORS OF ANIMALS. 



THERE is probably no one quality of natural 

 objects from which we derive so much pure 

 and intellectual enjoyment as from their colors. 

 The " heavenly " blue of the firmament, the glow- 

 ing tints of sunset, the exquisite purity of the 

 snowy mountains, and the endless shades of green 

 presented by the verdure-clad surface of the earth, 

 are a never-failing source of pleasure to all who 

 enjoy the inestimable gift of sight. Yet these 

 constitute, as it were, but the frame and back- 



ground of a marvelous and ever-changing picture. 

 In contrast with these broad and soothing tints, 

 we have presented to us, in the vegetable and ani- 

 mal worlds, an infinite variety of objects adorned 

 with the most beautiful and most varied hues. 

 Flowers, insects, and birds, are the organisms 

 most generally ornamented in this way ; and 

 their symmetry of form, their variety of structure, 

 and the lavish abundance with which they clothe 

 and enliven the earth, cause them to be objects of 



