162 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XXII. Na555 



have spent two summers in this kind of work and have 

 found it most j)rofi table. 



Examine the serpent in the embryo first. One easily 

 defines four long lines thus: 



1 



2 



3 



4 



The first is a white line of nerve flesh, the second a 

 livid line of muscular flesh, the third a red line of vascu- 

 lar flesh, and the fourth a yellow line of glandular flesh. 



In the adult these four radical elements appear also in 

 long lines, and one forgets to look for details of organs 

 and functions, for he sees before him a grand generaliza- 

 tion made by nature herself. Here is the long white 

 line of nerve, the flesh of excitation, next a gross elon- 

 gate contractile mass, say three feet in length, the motor 

 flesh, two long tubes, one alimentary the other sanguinif- 

 erous, nutritive tubing, constructive flesh, and finally a 

 chain of elongate soft masses, each serpent-shajjed, lung, 

 liver, kidney, ovary, constituting the effusive or produc- 

 tive flesh. 



Each of these being reduced to impalpable powder, if 

 made into extracts, we would have serpent neurine, mus- 

 culine, vasculine, glanduline. 



Presumably we must take it for granted that the flesh 

 of the serpent is not a23propriate for human veins, as we 

 do not put it into the human stomach, though we do that 

 of the turtle, but the simplicity of the organism makes it 

 a most delightful subject for the man of science to con- 

 template. Along that white nervous line lies the brain, 

 the soul, the spirit of the creature, the power of excite- 

 ment; by theory injected into the veins of other creatures 

 it ought to raise the spirits and the power of excitement. 

 Along the livid contractile line lies the muscular power. 

 In the third, or vascular line, we find the heart and the 

 vitality. Injection of this flesh should increase vitality, 

 the power of living and growing, — a sei-pent, like a cat, 

 dies hard. The heart and intestines of felines also offer a 

 subject for investigation. In the fourth line, finally, that 

 of the soft and melting flesh, we see the force of effusion 

 and eifloresceuce, or productivity. Forced feeding of the 

 veins or lacteals with this flesh ought to raise the effusive 

 and productive power. 



For purposes of experiment the rabbit would in many 

 places be a more convenient animal than the guinea pig 

 of Brown-Sequard. A number of these animals being 

 provided, the brain and nerves are thrown into the first 

 pile, so to speak, as spirit flesh, the muscles into 

 the second as motor flesh, the heart, veins, arteries 

 and intestines into the third as vital or vigor flesh, and 

 the lungs, liver, kidney, ovaries, testes and mammary 

 glands into the fourth as productive flesh. 



These four radical parts being treated by Brown- 

 Sequard's method would produce nerve juice, muscle 

 juice, vessel juice and gland juice. Being treated by Dr. 

 Hammond's process with boric acid, glycerine, and abso- 

 lute alcohol, the result would be four radical or elemen- 

 tary extracts, neurine, musculine, 'vasculine, glanduline, 

 calculated respectively to raise the spirits, the energies, 

 the vigor or vitality, and the effusive power. 



Each of the grand divisions of the little kingdom of 

 man has its capital or seat wherein each special kind of 

 force is concentrated. The nervous centre is the cere- 

 brum, or highest pair of nerve ganglia; the muscular cen- 

 tre, somewhat less marked in man, is clearly to be distin- 

 guished in the breast of wild birds, and in the rump of 

 the cervidfe; the heart is the vascular centre, the seat of 

 vitality and vigor, the culmination of nutritive force; 

 while the germ or sperm glands, or generative flesh, may 

 be regarded as the glandular culmination of the organ- 

 ism. 



In these organs, then, brain, breast (of birds), heart 

 and ovaries or testes, we have special concentrations of 

 life's radical forces, excitatory, motor, constructive and 

 generative, and thus, if instead of taking the whole of the 

 flesh for the manufacture of carneous extracts, one selects 

 the concentrated parts, using these alone, he will, in place 

 of making neurine, musculine, vasculine and glanduline, 

 produce cerebrine, jJectine, cardine, testine, which thus 

 ought to be a higher essence of the flesh. For these 

 specialized flesh masses in nature present to us the high- 

 est examples of force excitant, energetic, constructive and 

 generative. 



How to grasp and bottle these forces and with them 

 perform the scientific miracle of transubstantiation, is the 

 question for those who seek an elixir of life, making these 

 flesh masses by means of extracts the vehicles through 

 which to transfer these forces from animals to man. 



The ancient Romans were convinced of the truth of the 

 dictum that each j^art nourishes a part. As an example 

 the udders of cows were eaten by them as emotional 

 food. The science of sarcology and the new way opened 

 up by Brown-Sequard and Dr. Hammond suggest higher 

 possibilities. "Who knows but some day we may inject 

 into our veins the breasts of birds and the heart of the 

 lion, as modes of raising human spirits and energies. 



HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



BY JOHN EEADE, MONTREAL, CANADA. 



The period between 1876 and 1889 — the centennial 

 period, it might be called — was the occasion of many ret- 

 rosi^ects, touching the development of letters, law, the 

 constitution and various branches of science within the 

 Republic. Long before the later limit of this period had 

 been reached, the eyes of students had begun to contem- 

 plate, with admiration, an anniversary of still more preg- 

 nant suggestiveness, and surveys covering the interval 

 between the Columbian discovery and the present have 

 begun to appear. In an age of specialists, such as ours, 

 comprehensive records of progress, like those of Drs. 

 Whewell and Draper, are going out of fashion. Where 

 they survive, they mostly take the cyclopedic form, each 

 contributor dealing with a special department of knowl- 

 edge. If we were to have a history of scientiflc progress 

 in the new world during the last four centuries, it would 

 probably be the product of such collaboration. 



In compiling such a history, it would be necessary at 

 the outset to draw a line of partition between such scien- 

 tific research as, though conducted on this side of the 

 Atlantic, was due to European initiative. In geography, 

 for instance, the services of Columbus belong, in the 

 main, to Europe, and of European countries, Spain has 

 the best claim to the honor of them. But where, after 

 his primal discovery of cis-Atlantic land, he chose fresh 

 starting points for exp)loration and thus enlarged his 

 knowledge by its growth on American soil, America 

 may at least share in the distinction. Again, whatever 

 additions to geographical knowledge or natural history 

 were made under the auspices of viceroys or governors 

 after the settlement and political organization of the 

 West Indies and of South, Central and North America, 

 may fairly be set down to the credit of American science. 

 What is not American is Spanish, French or English, or 

 less frequently, Portuguese, Dutch or Scandinavian. 



The gathered facts which, after due sifting, amendment 

 and classification, might be accepted as of scientific value, 

 relate to geography, geology and mineralogy, meteorology, 

 botany, anthropology, philology, mj'thology and folk-lore. 

 Some of these terms were not in use in the early genera- 

 tions of American settlement; nor of science, in our mod- 

 ern sense, was there, apart from pure mathematics, and 



