October 2, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



193 



The Man of the Future. 

 Man being, zoologically, the highest organism known, the ques- 

 tion of his further evolution and its probable direction is one which 

 is naturally of interest to the student of anthropology. Is the 

 development of a higher species possible or probable? 



In order to even partially answer this question we must first 

 consider what would constitute jjerfection or an approach to it. 

 We are met at the very threshold of the problem by the fact, ap- 

 parent on every hand, that the human product of our present 

 civilization is, in the vast majority of instances, a very unequally 

 developed organism, physically and mentally: an asymmetrical 

 creature, the victim, so to speak, of specialism of one kind or an- 

 other; it may be of environment or of occupation, usually of both. 

 Hence the necessarily great diversity of view as to what would be 

 improvement in the race. 



It is a self-evident fact that improvement of the individual 

 means, in the long run, advancement of the race; but when we 

 ask what constitutes individual improvement, we receive ons an- 

 swer from the sociologist, another from the political economist, a 

 third from the athlete or artist, and still a different reply from the 

 philosopher. 



That an easily-governed and equably-tempered peoijle are not 

 necessarily of a high type of humanity is evident from the experi- 

 ence of China, where a population of 350,000,000 is governed by a 

 standing army of only 80,000 and the simplest police regulations, 

 — a state of affairs unparalleled in the history of the so-called 

 civilized nations. The perfection of their civil service and the 

 insignificant expense of state officials are also said to be marvellous 

 in the light of our experience. This state of affairs has been 

 attributed to the perfection of their social training system, but it 

 seems to the writer also allowable to suppose that many centuries 

 of low diet, with overcrowding and mental subjection, have largely 

 eliminated that spirit of restlessness and opposition to authority so 

 characteristic of western peoples. 



The ideas of the gymnast or exponent of physical culture, and 

 of the purely intellectual sophist, are equally at fault in tho solu- 

 tion of our question of improvement of the race; for it is evident 

 to all medical men, at least, that powerful muscles may be a 

 source of vital weakness to their possessor by inducing heart strain, 

 or by overtaxing the eliminative capacity of the kidneys and other 

 depurative organs, in the disposal of the results, the ashes so to 

 speak, of muscular combustion. And, again, even a pdwerful 

 brain may be menaced in its integrity by a weak or diseased blood- 

 vessel incapable of withstanding the pressure caused by high 

 functional activity. 



The zoologist, therefore, sees the true strength of the individual, 

 the race, and the species in (1) their plasticity, i.e., adaptability 

 or capacity for modification in response to changes of environ- 

 ment, provided this plasticity be not the cause of localized weak- 

 nesses; and (3) equilibrium of development, organic balance, so to 

 speak, between the component parts of the animal. 



The question has been asked, Would not the development of 

 wings or other additional organs be an improvement in the species ? 

 The reply to this, on zoological principles, would be No. The 

 addition of wings, for instance, would be a retrogression to a lower 

 type; and if the vrings were feathered, a still further retrogression. 

 We must conclude, then, that wings are incompatible with prog- 

 ress, zoologically considered, all visions of angels to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. 



In fact it is difficult to foresee any structural change of plan 

 that would be an improvement under our present environment. 



While, therefore, we may anticipate an increase in the average 

 perfection of parts, and consequently a more harmonious develop- 

 ment of man's present plan of structure, we cannot rationally look 

 for any radical change in the plan itself. Hence we may conclude, 

 upon purely theoretical grounds, as well as zoological experience, 

 that under present conditions man is, in his plan of structure, the 

 highest type of animal that can be produced; and while this may 

 seem to coincide with the philosophy of the fatalist, '• whatever is, 

 is right','' it is nevertheless true. 



Improvement in organic balance or correlation of organs, there- 

 fore, is the chief direction of advance possible, and this improve- 

 ment may he favored by the avoidance of excessive specialism in 



environment and occupation, by which certain organs are over- 

 developed, while others are dwarfed from disuse. 



The ideal man is the perfectly balanced man, physically and 

 mentally ; neither an athlete, an intellectual giant, nor a zoological 

 monstrosity, but a being harmoniously developed in all parts. 



It may be objected that such an organism would, like the " one- 

 hossshay" of Dr. Holmes, go to pieces all at once. But would 

 not this imply a useful capacity and activity up to a good old age, 

 of which we have striking examples in the lives of Audubon, 

 Jefferson, and Darwin, and be vastly preferable to a break at forty 

 from some one weak organ? 



The maxim, ''A chain is only as strong as its weakest link," 

 applies here as forcibly as it does in mechanics. 



Dr. F. W. Langdon. 



Cincinnati, O., Sfpt. 15. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



A History of Chemistry. By Ernst von Meyer. Translated by 

 George M Gowan. New York and London, Macmillan. 8". 

 $1.30. 



There haTve not been many histories of chemistry written, the 

 best known being probably that of Kopp, which began to appear 

 nearly fifty years ago. The same is true of physics, the only one 

 that now occurs to us being that of Poggendorf, yet it has often 

 seemed that it would be well for the student to be informed of the 

 way by which the present state of science has been reached, yet it is 

 but rarely that such information is imparted in lectures or in the 

 class-room. 



One reason for this may be in the worthlessness of what has 

 gone before, which is strongly brought ouc in our author's treat- 

 ment of alchemy. The benefits which accrued to chemistry 

 during the centuries which were occupied by alchemists in the 

 attempt to turn the baser metals into gold he estimates as very 

 slight. It was but seldom that a discovery of technical value, like 

 that of the making of porcelain, sprang from alcheraistic work. 

 On the other hand, positive harm was done by the tendency to 

 mysticism among many of the workers, which resulted frequently 

 in deliberate fraud. 



As man seems really to care first for wealth and then for health, 



— at least he will give up the latter in pursuit of the former, — so 

 after the attempt to gain riches through chemical knowledge had 

 proved futile, attention was turned by investigators — and these 

 of a higher class of intelligence than the earlier alchemists — to a 

 development of the knowledge of drugs and their action on the 

 human system, and to this period a chapter is devoted. 



One phenomenon which was evidently chemical in its nature 



— combustion — had always interested chemists, and gave rise to 

 the phlogiston theorj', which held sway from soon after the death 

 of Boyle till the discovery of oxygen in 1774. This theoretical 

 view of combustion had a great influence on the progress in the 

 accumulation of chemical truths, and it may be that here again 

 some would urge that little attention need now be paid to these 

 antiquated doctrines. But it may be well for the wisest of the 

 physicists and chemists of the present day to occasionally have it 

 pointed out to them how essentially false doctrines can maintain 

 themselves for considerable periods when once they have received 

 the endorsement of men wise in their day and generation. 



Chemistry, as we know it, came into full possession of its facul- 

 ties with the beginning of the use of the balance and the discovery 

 of oxygen. The systematization of the facts as they were discov- 

 ered was based, first, on the atomic theory of Dalton, and later 

 on the doctrine of valency as developed during the past thirty 

 years. All this development of the science is described historically 

 in the early chapters of the book before us. 



The closing chapter is devoted to a special history of the various 

 bi'anches of chemistry, from Lavoisier to the present day. In this 

 chapter are treated the history of analytical chemistry, and of pure 

 chemistry, inorganic and organic, which naturally leads to a con- 

 sideration of thermo-chemistry or of physical chemistry in general. 

 Technical chemistry is not neglected, nor are physiological and 

 agricultural, which offer as difficult problems as any in the whole 

 science. A section of interest is devoted to the methods of chemi- 



