PART V. WORKING STAGE. 



carbon, phosphorus, and sulphur were shown to have allotropic 

 forms, and the same fact, expressed as isomerism, was traced 

 in many compounds; radium was found to decompose into a 

 variety of elements, including helium ; the consumed taper and 

 the evaporated water were shown to persist in an altered form ; 

 for want of a critical attitude, the ancients spoke of earth, 

 water, fire, and air as the four elements, and only dimly dis- 

 tinguished as a rule between copper, bronze, and brass, whilst 

 until two centuries ago, all gases were regarded as the elemen- 

 tary substance air, modified by impurities; the blood proved 

 to be a treasure house of varied substances; the process of 

 digestion, instead of being carried on, as common sense sup- 

 posed, in the stomach alone and by some simple method, proves 

 to be an exceedingly lengthy and complicated process, com- 

 mencing with mastication and salivation, and continuing some 

 time after the modified food has left the stomach; and severe 

 epidemics were traced to certain animal parasites rather than 

 to the animals which carried the parasites. Death is regarded 

 as a sudden cessation of life, when the heart may be made 

 to renew its beating in certain conditions thirty hours after- 

 wards, when the beard and the nails continue growing, and 

 when the protoplasm in diverse parts is unaffected for some 

 time afterwards. The old atomic theory suggested the existence 

 of a simple atom, whilst the new atomic theory resolves the 

 atom into a complex system. The average townsman cannot 

 tell from the notes in the wood whether he hears many birds 

 or one; martin and swallow, or rook and crow, represent for 

 him a single species, and he fails to distinguish closely allied 

 kinds of flowers and trees; all grasses are grass to him. In 

 the mental realm, on this same account, the phrenologists 

 neglected the simple and general principles of mind, and most 

 students have been led to believe that the senses offer their 

 own explanation. This is true also of many popular terms, such 

 as beauty, imagination, skill, genius, character, goodness, truth, 

 love, etc. Piece-work seems fair, until we learn that increased 

 output may lead to a proportionate decrease of price per piece ; 

 gratuities may appear defensible, until we learn that a waiter 

 may actually have to pay for his post ; obedience loses its virtue 

 when it induces tyranny in the master; and wages lose their 

 simplicity, when the cost of living is taken into account. Or 

 to cite an example from anthropology, one of many similar 

 ones with which Prof. Franz Boas deals: "One of the striking 

 forms of social organisation which occurs in many religions 

 wide apart is what we called 'totemism' a form of society in 

 which certain social groups consider themselves as related in a 

 supernatural way to a certain species of animals or to a certain 

 class of objects. I believe this is the generally accepted defini- 

 tion of 'totemism'; but I am convinced that in this form the 

 phenomenon is not a single psychological problem, but em- 



