October, 1902. 



KNOWLEDGE. 



217 



IlLUSTRATm) MAGAZINE 



^ENCEJLiTERATimM^ 



Founded by RICHARD A. PROCTOR. 



Vol. XXV.] LONDON : OCTOBRR. 1902. [No. 204. 



CONTENTS. 



The Origin of Species in Sociology liy .T. ('oi.i.ri:u 



TheQuagga: a IVIissing Link. Bi U Lvi.ekkku. {Plate) 



Across Russian Lapland in Search of Birds. IV.— 

 In the Birch Scrub and on the Rocky Coast. By 

 IIabhy 1". WmiKttliY, F./.S., M B.O.U. {Illustrated) .'. 



Nebulous Stars and their Spectra. ByMis^AosKs \[. 



CrKRKK 



Astronomy without a Telescope. XVIII. — Various Sky 

 Effects. By K. Walter Maundbk, f.k.a.s. 



The Eclipse of the Moon, October 17, and how to 

 Project it. By W. Shackleton, f.k.a.s. {Illustrated) 



Obituary— Rudolph VrKCHOW. 



By Sir .Samcel Wilks, m.d., ll.d., f.r.s. 

 British Ornithological Notes. Conducted by lI.MiiiT V. 



\Vl 1 HKKBY, F.Z.S., M.B.O.tJ. ... 



Notices of Books 



Books Received 



Notes 



The Biography of a Snowflake. Bv Abthur H. Beli. 



Vegetable Mimicry and Homomorphism. — V. By Rev. 

 .Vlb.v. S. Wilson, M. A., B.^r. {Illuslrnted)' 



Microscopy. Conducted by M. I. Cbos3 



Notes on Comets and Meteors. By W. F. 

 F.K.A.3. ... ... ... 



for October. 



The Face of the Sky 



Shacklbton, f.e.a.s 



Chess Column. By C. D. Lococe, b.a. 



Denning, 

 By W. 



22(5 



229 



230 



231 

 231 

 232 



232 

 233 



235 

 237 



239 

 239 



THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES IN SOCIOLOGY 



By .J. CoLi.iKU. 



SocioLOGicAi, species consist of family types, forms of 

 gdverumcnt, industrial and ecclesiastical organizations, 

 giiines and sports, inannei's and fashions, languages, senti- 

 ments and beliefs, philosophies and sciences, literatures 

 and arts. They possess all the characters of vegetiil and 

 animal species, and have the same kind of reality. They 

 transmit those characters from generation to generation. 

 Tliev yet develop in definite directions, from a less to a 

 gi-eater degree of perfection. They liave a local habitat, 

 even when it belts the world. They battle with one 

 another for existence, and the fittest survive. They have 

 likewise peaceful intercourse with one another, and exhibit 

 all the phenomena of cross-fertilisation. What concerns 

 us now. they spring up as new species of animals and 

 plants spring up. The law of constant variation in all 

 species and in every organ is as operative in sociology 

 as in biologv. Some slight accidental or involuntary 



modification of an existing usage hardens into a practice, 

 from individual and private becomes public and general, 

 and in course of time assumes a shape wholly unlike its 

 first form, and i^erhaps contrary to the intentions of its 

 originator. We shall give a few examples from various 

 brandies of sociology : — 



1. — The origin of the feuilal system, as it has been 

 infelicitously termed, was the crux of constitutional 

 history throughout last century. Reeves, tlie historian of 

 English law, asserts that two statutes enacted by William 

 the Conqueror definitely establislied it all over England. 

 Tliat is an examyjle of the doctrine of special creations in 

 history. No accredited writer would now express himself 

 so loosely, but it is a specimen of hundreds of opinions 

 that still prevail about tht! origin of social institutions. 

 When the theory of special creations has been dislodged, 

 its place is taken by the hypothesis of social deluges and 

 caia<-lysms. The eminent German or Germanising writers 

 wIk) have lately reconstructed the constitutional history of 

 tlie Middle Ages— Waitz, Roth, von Maurer and Sohm, 

 Freeman and Stubbs — explain the origin of sociological 

 species as Cuvier explained the origin of animal species. 

 Feudalism was the outcome of what a scholar like Brachet. 

 with the uniform development of the French language 

 before his eyes, does not hesitate to call " the immdations 

 of the fiftii century." The invading Germans took 

 possession of Gaul, England. Spain, and northern Italy as 

 conquered countries. In each they found thousands of 

 farmers in occupation of the soil. Exercising the right of 

 eminent domain claimed by all conquerors, they confiscated 

 the entire fee simple, and converted the occupiers into 

 serfs. Certain usages, the benefice and companionship, 

 were trans]5orted bodily from Germany, and formed the 

 pillars of the new social system. A whole set of national 

 institutions was submerged, and a complete new set was 

 founded on their iiiins. To the anthropologist and the 

 antiquarian this revolutionary theorising has long been a 

 stumbling-block, and to the sociologist foolishness. The 

 new school maintains, on the contrary, that there were no 

 real invasions. Small commandoes (sometimes coalescing) 

 filtered across the frontiers and slowly blended with the 

 native populations. There were neither victors nor 

 vanquished. The Germans came on the invitation of the 

 Roman rulers, and were gradually Romanised. They 

 scarcely changed the ethnical composition of the various 

 peoples, but at the most reinforced the blonde long-headed 

 element. The political transmutation was slow and im- 

 perceptible. No new rrfjime was founded. There were 

 no radical changes in the status of jiersons or property. 

 There was no exproi)riation. Nevertheless, between the 

 fifth and the ninth centuries, a slow transformation of 

 manners, usages, and ideas took place throughout western 

 Europe. Founded by no public laws or degrees, but built 

 up stone by stone as the result of hundreds or thousands 

 of isolated private acts, turning insensibly into habits 

 which were at length firmly rooted, that astonishing feudal 

 structure was reared which it took the energies of a whole 

 ])eople to overthrow in 1789. 



We can here follow this very complex evolution only along 

 a single line. What was the origin of one of the most 

 characteristic features of feudalism — medieval serfage:' 

 No article of the Digest, no law of the Codes, no account 

 by any historian records its birth. Serfage was formed 

 slowly, obscurely, and without being observed. It began 

 as a slight variation of existing usages ; its first rudiment 

 was a tiny germ deposited in the bosom of ancient slavery ? 

 The late Fustel de Coulanges detected its rise in a brief 

 stat«,'ment made by an ancient Roman writer on agricul- 

 I ture. The voluminous Varro alleges that the master who 

 '• was satisfied with a slave sometimes granted him a piece 



