'^Jvty 4, 1884.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



AN ILLUSTRATED 



_^ AGAZINE OF SCIENCE 



^MnLYWORDED -EXACTLYDESCmm 



LONJJOiX: t'lUDAY, JULY \, 1884. 



Contents of No. 140. 



PAGB 



Chemistry of Cookery. XXXTII. 

 By W. M. Williams 1 



Notes on Flying and Flying-Ma- 

 chines. Bv Richard A. Proctor... 2 



Electro-plating. A'll. By W. 

 Shngo 4 



Comet Families of the Giant Planets. 

 Uy liicbard A. Proctor 5 



Photographing a Flash of Light- 

 ning. (Jllm.) ..._ „, 6 



The Antarctic Regions By R. A. 

 Proctor 6 



International Health Exhibition.— 

 VI, Water and Water Supplies ... 7 



10 



PAOB 



On Peculiarities of Sight and Opti- 

 cal Illusions. By N. E. Green ... 

 The Evolution of Flowers. (Illus.) 



By Grant Allen 



Conceit (for Self and Family) . By 



R. A. Proctor 11 



Reviews 12 



Editorial Gossip 13 



The Face of the Sky. By P.K.A.S. 14 



Correspondence 14 



Our Piiradta Column 17 



Our Mathematical Column 18 



Our Whifit Column 19 



Our Chess Column 30 



THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 



By W. Mattieu Williams. 



XXXYII.— COUXT RUMFOED AND THE BAVARIAN 

 BEGGAKS. 



I MUST not leave the subject of vegetable cookery 

 without describing Count Eumford's achievements in 

 feeding the paupers, rogues, and vagabonds of Munich. 

 An account of tliis is the more desirable from the fact that 

 the " soup " which formed the basis of his dietary is still 

 misunderstood in this country, for reasons that I shall 

 presently state. 



After reorganising the Bavarian army, not only as 

 regards military discipline, but in the feeding, clothing, 

 education, and useful employment of the men, in order to 

 make them good citizens as well as good soldiers, he 

 attacked a still more difficult problem — that of removing 

 from Bavaria the scandal and burden of the hordes of 

 beggars and thieves which had become intolerable. He 

 tells us that " the number of itinerant beggars of both 

 sexes, and all ages, as well foreigners as natives, who 

 strolled about the country in all directions, levying con- 

 tributions from the industrious inhabitants, stealing and 

 robbing, and leading a life of indolence and most 

 shameless debauchery, was quite incredible," and, 

 further, that " these detestable vermin swarmed every- 

 where, and not only their impudence and clamorous 

 importunity were without any bounds, but they had 

 recourse to the most diabolical acts, and most horrid 

 crimes, in the jjrosecution of their infamous trade. Young 

 children were stolen from their parents by these 

 wretches, and their eyes put out, or their tender limbs 

 broken and distorted, in order, by exposing them thus 

 maimed, to excite the pity and commiseration of tlie 

 public." He gives further particulars of their trading 

 upon the misery of their own children, and their organisa- 

 tion to obtain alms by systematic intimidation. Previous 

 attempts to cure the evil had failed, and the public had 

 lost all faith in further projects, and therefore no support 

 was to be expected for Eumford's scheme. " Aware of 

 this," he says, " I took my measures accordingly. To con- 



vince the public that the scheme was feasible, I determined 

 first, by a great exertion, to carry it into complete execu- 

 tion, and then to ask them to support it." 



He describes the military organisation by which he dis- 

 tributed the army throughout the country districts to 

 capture all the strolling provincial beggars, and how, on 

 Jan. 1, 1790, he bagged all the beggars of Munich in less 

 than an hour by means of a well-organised civil and mili- 

 tary battue, the New Year's Day being the great festival 

 when all the beggars went abroad to enforce their customary 

 black-mail upon the industrious section of the population. 

 Though very interesting, I must not enter upon these de- 

 tails, but cannot help stepping a little aside from my 

 proper subject to quote his weighty words on the ethical 

 principles upon which he proceeded. He says that " with 

 persons of this description, it is easy to be conceived that 

 precepts, admonitions, and punishments would be of little 

 avail. But where precepts fail, habits maj' sometimes be 

 successful. To make vicious and abandoned people happy, 

 it has generally been supposed necessary, Jirst, to make 

 them virtuous. But why not reverse this order ? Why 

 not make them first happy and then virtuous 1 If happi- 

 ness and \artue be inseparable, the end will as certainly be 

 attained by one method as by the other ; and it is most 

 undoubtedly much easier to contribute to the happiness 

 and comfort of persons in a state of poverty and misery 

 than, by admonitions and punishments, to improve their 

 morals." 



He applied these principles to his miserable material 

 with complete success, and referring to the result exclaims, 

 " Would to God that my success might encourage others to 

 follow my example ! " Further examination of his pro- 

 ceedings shows that in order to follow such example, a 

 knowledge of first principles and a determination to carry 

 them out in bold defiance of vulgar ignorance, general 

 prejudice, and polite sneering, is necessary. 



Having captured the beggars thus cleverly, he proceeded 

 to carry out the above stated principle, by taking them to 

 a large building already prepared, and where "everything 

 was done that could be devised to make them really com- 

 fortable.^' The first condition of such comfort, he maintains, 

 is cleanliness, and his dissertation on this, though written 

 so long ago, might be inscribed in letters of gold over the 

 portals of our Health Exhibition of to-day. 



Describing how he carried out his principles, he says of 

 the prisoners thus captured : — " Most of them had been 

 used to living in the most miserable hovels, in the midst of 

 vermin and every kind of filthiness, or to sleep in the 

 streets, and under the hedges, half naked and exposed to 

 all the inclemencies of the seasons. A large and commo- 

 dious building, fitted up in the neatest and most comfort- 

 able manner, was now pro^^ded for their reception. In 

 this agreeable retreat they found spacious and elegant 

 apartments, kept with the most scrupulous neatness ; well 

 warmed in winter, and well lighted ; a good, warm dinner 

 every day, gratis, cooked and served up with all possible 

 attention to order and cleanliness ; materials and utensils 

 for those that were able to work ; masters gratis for those 

 who required instruction ; the most generous pay, in 

 money, for all the labour performed ; and the kindest usage 

 from every person, from the highest to the lowest, belonging 

 to the establishment. Here in this asylum for the indigent 

 and unfortunate no ill-usage, no harsh language is per- 

 mitted. During five years that the establishment has 

 existed, not a blow has been given to any one, not even to 

 a child by his instructor." 



This appears like the very expensive scheme of a bene- 

 volent Utopian ; but, to set my readers at rest on this 

 point, I will anticipate a little by stating that, although at 



