216 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE EXPERIENCES OF A DIVER. 



By Prof. HEKMANN FOL.* 



THE Romans of the easy class dreamed of junketing in a villa 

 with an outlook on cultivated fields. A hundred years ago the 

 Alps were never spoken of without laying stress upon their ter- 

 rors. Such facts show how different are the tastes and the ideals 

 of this generation from those of our ancestors. In the present age 

 of tiresome security, we have become amateurs of danger. One 

 man scales the highest mountain-peaks without any other purpose 

 than to taste for a few hours the rough pleasure of the struggle 

 for existence. Another prefers risks that will contribute to the 

 increase of man's scientific capital, and will leave something more 

 than a simple personal recollection. I invite the exuberant forces 

 of living youth to the exploration of the sea, than which a vaster 

 field and one more capable of satisfying daring and curiosity of 

 every kind can not be found. It is an exploration which, with all 

 deference to cabinet naturalists, presents at once a great attrac- 

 tion and a high scientific importance. 



I know persons whose ideal consists in getting preserved speci- 

 mens, no matter how many, provided they are new. We call new 

 a species that has not yet been dressed up with a Latin name, and 

 which we have consequently a right to baptize with a word in a 

 dead language, followed by the name of the baptizer. The harm 

 of the matter is in the latter element, for, without that addition, 

 the number of Latin names would be reduced by a half, and there 

 would be no occasion to protest against authors who create a ge- 

 nus for each new species. Some find their pleasure in classifying 

 and naming species. Others profess to despise that occupation. 

 They prefer to dissect animals and describe their anatomy, with- 

 out concerning themselves respecting the use to which the organs 

 are fitted. Still others love to describe the development of beings, 

 without knowing anything of the purpose of the successive or- 

 ganizations of larvae and young ; and they meet in the work 

 anomalies that puzzle their brains. We understand the swallow, 

 because we see its actions. But if there were naturalists living 

 on the bottom of the ocean who had never been in the air, and 

 who knew these graceful birds only through specimens preserved 

 in alcohol, what brilliant zoological, anatomical, and embryogeni- 

 cal dissertations would they not make on the subject ! I know 

 many among naturalists occupying themselves with marine zool- 

 ogy who do not dive or swim, and whose science is of no more 

 value than the swallow-science of our supposed submarine natu- 



* Address before the Nautical Club of Nice. 



