February 17, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



259 



may be restrained and again developed by ad- 

 dition of water. 



Methyl orange, cyanine and coralline were 

 similarly demonstrated. 



A letter was read from the General Secretary 

 stating that " at the closing session of the mid- 

 winter meeting at Columbia University, Decem- 

 ber 28th, by unanimous vote, the cordial thanks 

 of the Society were extended to the New York 

 Section for the bountiful hospitalities of the 

 Section, which were so heartily enjoyed by the 

 members of the Society during the eighteenth 

 general meeting.'' 



DuRAND Woodman, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 REPLY TO CRITICS. 



Suppose a bouse just finished is empty ; sup- 

 pose that it is painted inside and out so as to 

 conceal from vision everything but the paint. 

 Suppose I come upon such a house for the first 

 time and consider it a body of paint, for paint 

 is the only thing that appears at first.' In time 

 I discover that it is made of bricks. At first it 

 had the appearance of paint ; now it has the 

 appearance of paint and bricks. After further 

 investigation I find that it is partly of wood, 

 for wood appears in its structure. Now, I con- 

 clude that it is paint, bricks and wood. By 

 further investigation I find that it is composed 

 partly of iron. Now, I consider it as paint, 

 bricks, wood and iron. Then I might investi- 

 gate paint, bricks, wood and iron to discover 

 their chemical constitution and the biological 

 history of wood, and new facts would appear. 

 I might go on indefinitely to show how new 

 things are discovered in the building, both in 

 structure and in purpose, and the new things 

 discovered will appear to me. Those already 

 mentioned are enough for this illustration. 



Common sense says that paint-is paint. The 

 metaphysician says that paint is appearance ; 

 that there is no paint as paint, or at least all we 

 know about it is appearance. The same may 

 be said with regard to the bricks. Common 

 sense says bricks are bricks, whether they ap- 

 pear or not ; the metaphysician says the bricks 

 are only appearances. Common sense says 

 there is wood, whether it appears or not ; the 



metaphysician says no, it is only appearance. 

 When we discover the iron, common sense says 

 there is iron in this structure, whether it appears 

 or not ; the metaphysician says no, there is only 

 appearance. 



Let us get a learned name for appearance. 

 Let us call apisearance 'phenomenon,' for that 

 is the Greek word meaning appearance. Now, 

 common sense says that paint, bricks, wood and 

 iron are paint, bricks, wood and iron, respect- 

 ively, and that appearance is appearance ; but 

 our metaphysician says that all of these things 

 are only appearance and we call appearances 

 phenomena ; therefore, this house, with all its 

 appearance, is only a concatenation of phe- 

 nomena. Ofttimes it is asserted that the world 

 is a phenomenal world. Those who make this 

 assertion believe that the world is only appear- 

 ance. Common sense says that all things of the 

 world exist and manifest themselves by appear- 

 ance, but that they exist whether they manifest 

 themselves or not. Metaphysic says that the 

 things of the world do not exist as they appear, 

 but that their substrates exist, and that these 

 substrates manifest properties which are not 

 the things themselves. The properties are only 

 illusions — there is no iron, but there is a sub- 

 strate of iron which manifests certain attributes 

 which are illusions. 



In modern times there are two ways in which 

 these supposed illusions are explained. In one 

 way the attempt is made to show that the sub- 

 strate of things is psj'chosis or abstract mind; 

 the other is the attempt to explain that the sub- 

 strate is force or motion. Thus, metaphysicians 

 may be classified as idealists and not materialists. 



Common sense says that we may know a 

 body imperfectly and by Investigation cognize 

 more and more about it, and, however, simple 

 a body it may be, we may, by investigation, 

 learn very much about it and still not know all. 



The idealist says this is true, but by further 

 investigation everything will turn into appear- 

 ance until we resolve the body into a substrate, 

 and its substrate will be found to be psychosis, 

 which is timeless and spaceless. 



The materialists say we know more and more 

 about a body until we resolve it into motion or 

 force, some holding that force creates motion, 

 others that force is a mode of motion ; so that 



