Science from an Easy Chair

by Sir E. Ray Lankester

[CONTENTS]

		PAGE
[I.]	Science and Practice	[1]
[II.]	University Training	[6]
[III.]	Darwin’s Theory	[12]
[IV.]	Darwin’s Discoveries	[18]
[V.]	Darwin’s Theory Unshaken	[27]
[VI.]	Metchnikoff and Tolstoi	[38]
[VII.]	The Land of Azure Blue	[46]
[VIII.]	Fresh-Water Jelly-Fishes	[58]
[IX.]	The Story of the Common Eel	[65]
[X.]	Modern Horses and their Ancestors	[77]
[XI.]	A Rival of the Fabled Upas Tree	[91]
[XII.]	Poisons and Stings of Plants and Animals	[100]
[XIII.]	The Dragon: A Fancy or a Fact	[114]
[XIV.]	Oysters	[128]
[XV.]	Maternal Care and Molluscs	[143]
[XVI.]	The Heart’s Beat	[147]
[XVII.]	Sleep	[155]
[XVIII.]	The Universal Structure of Living Things	[170]
[XIX.]	Protoplasm, Life and Death	[180]
[XX.]	Chemistry and Protoplasm	[187]
[XXI.]	The Simplest Living Things	[193]
[XXII.]	Tadpoles and Frogs	[209]
[XXIII.]	About the Stars	[220]
[XXIV.]	Comets	[227]
[XXV.]	About Cholera	[237]
[XXVI.]	Sea-Breezes, Mountain Air, and Ozone	[251]
[XXVII.]	Oxygen Gas for Athletes and Others	[258]
[XXVIII.]	Sparrows, Trout, and Selective Breeding	[266]
[XXIX.]	The Feeble-Minded	[271]
[XXX.]	Death-Rates	[283]
[XXXI.]	Gossamer	[287]
[XXXII.]	The Jumping Bean	[296]
[XXXIII.]	Protective Colouring in Animals	[304]
[XXXIV.]	Hop-Blight	[314]
[XXXV.]	Green-Flies, Plant-Lice, and Parthenogenesis	[322]
[XXXVI.]	The Deadly Phylloxera	[334]
[XXXVII.]	Clothes Moths	[339]
[XXXVIII.]	Stone and Wood Borers	[346]
[XXXIX.]	Christmas Fare	[356]
[XL.]	The Origin of Opium	[363]
[XLI.]	The Most Ancient Men	[371]
[XLII.]	The Cave-Men’s Skulls	[391]
[XLIII.]	More About the Neander Men	[402]
	[Index]	[413]

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[LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS]

DIAGRAMS IN THE TEXT

FIG.	PAGE
[1.]	The Little Green Tree-Frog or “Rainette” of the Riviera (Hyla arborea)	51
[2.]	The Common Jelly-Fish (Aurelia aurita)	59
[3.]	The Fresh-Water Jelly-Fish (Limnocodium)	60
[4.]	Four Jelly-Fish-producing Polyps adhering to a Root-Fibre of a Water-Plant	61
[5.]	The African Fresh-Water Jelly-Fish (Limnocnida)	62
[6.]	Young Stages of the Common Eel	72
[7.]	Drawing of an Ivory Carving of a Female Head	80
[8.]	Drawing of a Fully Rounded Carving in Reindeer’s Antler of the Head of a Neighing Horse	80
[9.]	Drawing of a Flat Carving in Shoulder-Bone of a Horse’s Head, showing Twisted Rope-Bridle and Trappings	81
[10.]	Fore-Foot of the Horse-Ancestor, Hipparion	84
[11.]	Skulls of Horses and of Deer	86
[12.]	Fore and Hind Legs of Horse and Ass	88
[13.]	Diagram of the Under Surface of the Foot in the Dog, Tapir, and Horse	89
[14.]	Drawings of the Leaves of the Common Quinquefoliate Virginian Creeper, of the Adherent “Ampelopsis Veitchii,” and of the Poison-Vine (Rhus toxicodendron)	95
[15.]	Drawing from Life of the Desert Scorpion (Buthus australis, Lin.), from Biskra, North Africa	109
[15 bis.]	Highly Magnified Drawing of a Stinging Hair of the Common Nettle	113
[16.]	The Heraldic Dragon	115
[17.]	The Heraldic Griffin	116
[18.]	Hercules destroying the Hydra	116
[19.]	The Heraldic Wyvern	117
[20.]	The Heraldic Basilisk, also called the Amphysian Cockatrice	117
[21.]	The Chinese Imperial Dragon	121
[22.]	A Flying Snake with Two Pairs of Wings	121
[23.]	The “Dragon” Guarding the Tree in the Garden of the Hesperides	122
[24.]	A Votive Tablet	124
[25.]	Ancient Roman Painting of a so-called Marine Serpent	124
[26.]	Egyptian Four-Winged Serpent	125
[27.]	Two-Winged Serpent	125
[28.]	An Oyster with the Right-Side Shell Removed	130
[29.]	Part of a Row of the Lashing Hairs or “Cilia” which cover the Gills of the Oyster	131
[30.]	The Animal of an Oyster Removed from the Shell	132
[31.]	The Eggs of the Oyster	133
[32.]	The Sperms or Spermatozoa of a Ripe Oyster	134
[33.]	Development of the Egg of the Common Oyster	135
[34.]	Free-Swimming Young Oyster or Oyster Larva	136
[35.]	Young of the Pond-Mussel after Escaping from the Maternal Gill-Pouch	145
[36.]	Simple “Cells,” consisting of Naked Protoplasm, Changing Shape and taking in Solid Food Particles	171
[37.]	Cells forming Tissues	172
[38.]	Copy of Part of Robert Hook’s Drawing of a Magnified Piece of Cork	173
[39.]	A Piece of Cartilage	174
[40.]	Three Kinds of Cells	175
[41.]	Two Specimens of a Bell-Animalcule (Vorticella)	196
[42.]	Six Successive Stages in the Division of a “Cell”	201
[43.]	Stages in the Growth from the Egg of the Common Frog	210
[44.]	Outline Drawings of Three European Tadpoles	217
[45.]	The Comet shown in the Bayeux Tapestry	232
[46.]	The Cholera Spirillum, or Comma-Bacillus of Koch	241
[47.]	A Young Spider	288
[48.]	View of the Lower Surface of the Head and Body of a Large Burmese Spider	290
[49.]	Section through the Body of a Spider to show the Spinning Organs	291
[50.]	One of the Two Middle Spinnerets of the Common Garden Spider (Epeira diadema)	292
[51.]	The Common Garden Spider, correctly called the White-Cross Spider (Epeira diadema)	293
[52.]	On the Right Two Jumping Beans: on the Left the Caterpillar Removed from the Jumping Bean	299
[53.]	The Caterpillar of the Moth (Carpocapsa saltitans) removed from the Jumping Bean	300
[54.]	The Moth (Carpocapsa saltitans)	301
[55.]	Early Winged Female Hop-Louse	316
[56.]	Male Hop-Louse	317
[57.]	Ordinary Wingless Female Hop-Louse	318
[58.]	Foundress or Stock-Mother of the Hop-Louse	323
[59.]	Side View of Winged Viviparous Female of the Hop-Louse	323
[60.]	An Ant “Milking” a “Plant-Louse” or “Green-Fly” for Honey-Dew	324
[61.]	Single Egg-Tube or Ovarian Tube of an Insect	329
[62.]	The Death-Watch Beetle (Xestobium tessellatum)	350
[63.]	The Silver-Fish Insect (Lepisma saccharina)	353
[64.]	The Book-Louse, or Atropos divinatoria	354
[65.]	The Human Skull from the Chapelle-aux-Saints	370
[66.]	An Unpolished but Beautifully Chipped Flint Knife of the Neolithic Age	374
[67.]	A Polished Flint Axe-head of the Neolithic Age	375
[68.]	Harpoons of the Palæolithic Period	379
[69.]	A Piece of Mammoth Ivory Carved with Spirals and Scrolls	380
[70.]	Carving on an Antler of a Group of Three Red Deer and Four Fishes	381
[71.]	Painting of a Bison	382
[72.]	Back and Front View of a Flint Implement of the Moustier Type	384
[73.]	Flint Pick from the Lower Pleistocene of the Thames Valley	387
[74.]	A Rough Type of Flint Implement from the Lower Pleistocene of the Somme Valley	388
[75.]	A Profile and a Front View of the Skull and Lower Jaw of a Man of the Cromagnard Race or Reindeer Men	389
[76.]	Three Views of the Skull-Top from near Dusseldorf on the Rhine, known as the Neanderthal Skull	392
[77.]	The Gibraltar Skull from a Cave in Gibraltar	394
[78.]	The Skull-Top of the Primitive Kind of Man from Pleistocene Sands in Java, called Pithecanthropus	400
[79.]	Drawing of the Left Side of the Lower Jaw of a Modern European	404
[80.]	Outline of the Skull of the Neander Man from the Chapelle-aux-Saints	404
[81.]	The Skull of a Male Chimpanzee	405
[82.]	The Heidelberg Jaw	405

PLATES

[I.]	Immature and Mature Specimens of the Common Eel of the Natural Size	Frontispiece
[II.]	Real Dragons. The Extinct Flying Reptiles known as Pterodactyles	Facing p. 118