November 29, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



751 



JOHN WESLEY AND EVOLUTION 



To THE Editor of Science: In a recent 

 book on " Evolution and Animal Life " the 

 authors, Jordan and Kellogg, attribute the 

 following to John Wesley: 



The ape is this rough draft of man. Mankind 

 have their gradations as well as other productions 

 of our globe. There is a prodigious number of 

 continued links between the most perfect man and 

 -the ape (p. 452) . 



As a matter of fact, these statements, se- 

 lected from different connections, are not at- 

 tributable to Wesley in any proper sense. 

 That they were thus ascribed to him by the 

 authors probably grows out of the circum- 

 stance that in a work by this author, entitled 

 " A Survey of the Wisdom of God as Revealed 

 in the Creation, or A Compendium of Natural 

 Philosophy," is contained extended quotations 

 from Bonnet's " Contemplation de la Nature," 

 and that among these may be found the pas- 

 sages in question, erroneously ascribed to Mr. 

 Wesley. That the latter author gave the 

 views concerned some measure of approval 

 may be inferred in that he introduces the 

 quotations in the following cordial terms : 



This reflection upon the scale of beings, is pur- 

 sued at large by one of the finest writers of the 

 age, Mr. Bonnet, of Geneva, in that beautiful 

 work, " The Contemplation of Nature." When I 

 first read this, I designed to only make some ex- 

 tracts from it, to be inserted under their proper 

 heads. But under further consideration, I judged 

 it would be more agreeable, as well as more profit- 

 able to the reader, to give an abridgment of the 

 whole, that the admirable chain of reasoning may 

 be preserved, etc' 



However, not only in this indirect way may 

 the interest of this versatile and scholarly 

 theologian be inferred. The body of the work 

 abounds in illustrations of intelligent sym- 

 pathy with scientific activity and progress. 

 And the authors of " Animal Life and Evolu- 

 tion " might have cited passages, almost as 

 pertinent as those above, directly from Mr. 

 Wesley. Eor example, on p. 148, Vol. I., may 

 be read the following: 



' Cf. supra, 3d American edition. Vol. II., p. 

 185; and for the passages in question, ibid., pp. 

 208, 211. 



Animals of the monlcey class are furnished with 

 hands instead of paws; their ears, eyes, eyelids, 

 lips and breasts are lilce those of manl'cind; their 

 internal conformation also bears some distant 

 likeness; and the whole offers a picture that may 

 mortify the pride of such as make their persons 

 the principal objects of their admiration. These 

 approaches are gradual, however, and some bear 

 the marks of our form more strongly than others. 

 In the ape-kind, we see the whole external machine 

 strongly impressed with the human lilveness ; these 

 walk upright, want a tail, have fleshy posteriors, 

 have calves to their legs, and feet nearly like ours. 

 In the baboon-kind, we perceive a more distant 

 approach; . . . the monkey-kind are removed a 

 step further, etc. 



Chas. W. Hargitt 



two flea remedies to be tested 

 Aside from great annoyance caused by ileas, 

 their agency in the carriage of the bubonic 

 plague has been so well established that it is 

 important to test every proposed remedy or 

 preventive. Since the publication of my cir- 

 cular No. 13 on this subject, I have received 

 information concerning two remedies vouched 

 for by careful persons, but have not had a 

 good opportunity to test either. I hope that 

 readers of Science having the opportunity 

 will try these remedies and will let me know 

 the results. 



Mr. E. M. Ehrhorn, the well-known ento- 

 mologist who is deputy commissioner of hor- 

 ticulture in California, gives me the follow- 

 ing: Fill a soup-plate with soapsuds; in the 

 center place a glass of water with a scum of 

 kerosene on top; place the soup-plate on the 

 floor in an infested room, and set fire to the 

 kerosene at night. Eleas in the room will be 

 attracted and will jump into the soapsuds. 



Another remedy is sent me by the well- 

 known writer on ants. Miss Adele M. Fielde, 

 with the request that I make it widely known. 

 Miss Eielde states that during long residence 

 in southern China, where fleas swarm even in 

 clean houses, she made her own house immune 

 through many years, by dissolving alum in 

 the whitewash or kalsomine that covered the 

 interior walls, putting sheets of thick paper 

 that had been dipped in a solution of alum 

 under the floor matting and scattering pul- 



