SOCIOLOGY. 25 



Committee of our town, resulting in a diminished death-rate, as com- 

 pared with that of other hirge towns, and concurrently with it a 

 possibly higher standard of general health. The labours of the Baths 

 and Parks Coniniittce in opening additional baths, parks, and recrea- 

 tion grounds would also tell as factors. In one of his works (I forget 

 which, at this time) Mr. Herbert Spencer suggests that it would be most 

 interesting to ascertain among the criminals in a gaol how many of 

 them had been in the habit of taking a bath! The opening of a public 

 park or recreation ground in a district would not only have remote 

 influence in diminishing crime in that district, but immediate 

 mfluence in adding to the health of that district. Morally and 

 intellectually the opening of a Free Library in a district would be a 

 most important factor of progress. The labours of the Improvement 

 Committee of our town having charge of the Artizaus' Dwellings 

 Scheme in removing unfit and unsanitary dwellings, and opening up 

 spaces for oxygenation and freedom of transit, are all interesting 

 factors. Probably, also, the closing of unnecessary houses for the sale 

 of intoxicating drinks, and the opening of coffee houses in a district, 

 act as Sociological factors of progi-ess. 



We all remember the fatnous illustration in the " Origin of 

 Species" (showing the complex relations of all animals and plants to 

 each other in the struggle for existence), of the large and extremely 

 barren heath, part of an estate of a relative of the author, in Stafford- 

 shire, of which several hundred acres, of exactly the same nature, had 

 been enclosed twenty-five years previously, and planted with Scotch 

 fir. "The change in the native vegetation of the planted part of the 

 heath was most remarkable, more than is generally seen in passing 

 from one quite different soil to another, not only the proportional 

 numbers of the heath-plants were wholly changed, but twelve species 

 of plants (not counting grasses and carices) flourished in the planta- 

 tions, which could not be found on the heath. The effect on the 

 insects must have been still greater, for six insectivorous birds were 

 very common in the plantations, which were not to be seen on the 

 heath ; and the heath was frequented by two or three distinct 

 insectivorous birds. Here we see how potent has been the effect of 

 the introduction of a single tree, nothing whatever else having been 

 done, with the exception that the land had been enclosed, so that 

 cattle could not enter."* 



Another wonderful instance of the relation between cause and 

 effect is mentioned in the "Data of Ethics," and proved by direct 

 experiment. "Making such arrangements that the bile-duct of a dog 

 delivered its product outside the body, Claude Bernard observed 

 that so long as he petted the dog and kept him in good spirits 

 secretion went on at its normal rate ; but on speaking angrily, and for 

 a time so treating him as to produce depression, the flow of bile was 



* " The Origin of Species," by Charles Darwin, M.A., F.E.S., etc., 4th ed., 1860, 

 pp.81, 82. 



