Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, April 1899: Volume LIV, No. 6, April 1899

In Short

This late-nineteenth-century periodical issue captures a turn-of-the-century effort to explain human nature, global economics, and natural history through scientific observation. Across its eclectic articles, writers examine how physical digestion shapes our moral dreams, calculate the agricultural yield needed to feed future populations, map the grammar of distant tongues, and record the practical work of whaling crews and throat doctors. Its enduring value lies in its candid snapshot of a civilization aggressively applying empirical methods to every aspect of daily life and social organization.

The Story

The volume opens inside the human mind, where Havelock Ellis argues that the terrifying narratives of our dreams are not moral revelations, but late-night fabrications designed by a confused sleeping brain to account for physical discomforts like indigestion. This shift from mystical or moral causes to concrete physical forces establishes the foundational argument running throughout the entire collection: human behavior, economic systems, and environmental phenomena are governed by material conditions rather than abstract ideals.

Moving from internal biology to global infrastructure, the volume addresses how nations organize their fiscal and agricultural survival. David A. Wells surveys international systems of taxation, comparing how different states manage commodities like tobacco and alcohol through customs, state monopolies, or domestic production taxes. Building on this concern for national sustenance, Edward Atkinson tackles the "wheat problem," using statistical calculations and agricultural diagrams to project land usage up to the year 1930. Atkinson maintains that vast reserves of arable land in the United States can easily satisfy domestic consumption and international exports, provided modern farming practices continue to develop.

The focus then broadens to encompass natural history and geography. Spencer Trotter tracks the springtime arrival of migratory birds like swallows, swifts, and wood thrushes, using their return to chart the changing seasons. William E. Cram contributes detailed observations on the habits of weasels, while Dr. F. L. Oswald outlines the island geography and native mammals of the Antilles, noting how introduced domestic dogs reverted into wild, self-supporting hunters across the West Indies. Meanwhile, F. B. Dresslar investigates numerical preferences, showing how modern beliefs in "luck" stem from ancient, persistent mental habits that favor odd numbers over even ones.

The volume turns toward applied human management in its closing essays. Medical writers offer practical instructions for throat care and voice cultivation, recommending daily breathing exercises and routine home examinations for children. Linguists analyze the structure of the Malay language, detailing its lack of traditional inflection and its intricate system of numeral co-efficients and social etiquette pronouns. Frank T. Bullen provides a vivid account of shipboard life on a South Sea whaler, detailing the grueling night work of "flenching" blubber by the light of flaming scrap-fed cressets. Finally, the editors defend Herbert Spencer's doctrine of the "survival of the fittest," clarifying that biological "fitness" refers strictly to an organism's direct physical adaptation to its immediate surroundings rather than any subjective or ideal superiority.

How It Unfolds

The mind invents a myth Havelock Ellis shows how a distended stomach prompts the sleeping brain to invent stories of terrible crimes and escape, demonstrating that intellect frequently serves as a tool for physical emotion.

States collect their dues David A. Wells surveys global tax structures, showing how countries regulate tobacco, spirits, and trade through custom tariffs and state monopolies based on fiscal and social needs.

Calculations secure the future Edward Atkinson calculates American arable land reserves, projecting that intentional agricultural development can comfortably meet domestic wheat demands through the year 1930.

Spring brings the migrants Spencer Trotter charts the arrival of April bird waves, connecting the reappearance of swallows, swifts, and thrushes to seasonal temperatures and emerging insect life.

Superstition prefers the odd F. B. Dresslar examines numerical guessing habits, linking modern beliefs in luck to an enduring psychological preference for odd numbers over even ones.

The sea yields its oil Frank T. Bullen describes the relentless labor aboard a whaling ship, where crew members haul carcasses deckside and render blubber through the night under the glare of scrap-fueled lamps.

The People

Havelock Ellis Wants to demystify human sleep by linking subconscious experience to physiological causes. He contends with traditional assumptions that view dreams as moral or spiritual events, ultimately establishing that sleeping consciousness simply invents narratives to explain bodily distress.

Edward Atkinson Wants to disprove theories of impending food scarcity through rigorous agricultural statistics. Faced with pessimistic forecasts regarding national output, he maps out square miles of arable land to demonstrate that improved farming methods will easily sustain future populations.

Dr. Martin W. Barr Wants to organize institutional training for mentally deficient individuals based on practical capability rather than rigid academic standards. Standing against uniform schooling approaches, he pushes for manual training tailored to individual physical and mental limitations.

Manly Miles Wants to advance state natural history and agricultural science through precise empirical collection. Though pulled away from pure zoology into experimental agriculture, his systematic cataloging of state fauna establishes the baseline for all subsequent regional surveys.

In Its Own Voice

"Thus our dreams bear witness to the fact that our intelligence is often but a tool in the hands of our emotions."

Havelock Ellis explains how the sleeping mind invents elaborate narratives merely to justify the physical sensations caused by indigestion.

"The conditions do not create fitness; they merely eliminate unfitness; nor does Mr. Spencer conceive any agency as producing ab extra the fitness which enables an organism or a number of organisms to survive."

The editors clarify Herbert Spencer’s evolutionary theories against contemporary critics who misinterpret biological adaptation.

"When the student learns that a verb may be past, present, or future without any change in form, he does not know whether to congratulate himself or not."

Prof. R. Clyde Ford notes the surprising grammatical peculiarities encountered when studying the Malay language.

What It's Really About

At its core, this volume investigates how humanity measures, categorizes, and adapts to its environment. The contributors share a core conviction: complex phenomena—whether the terror of a nightmare, the administration of national taxes, or the migration of songbirds—can be understood through disciplined, empirical observation.

Underneath its varied topics, the collection confronts the tension between human habit and natural law. Articles on numerical preference and superstition illustrate how easily the human mind slips into irrational thinking, while pieces on evolutionary biology and industrial processing stress the necessity of clear-eyed adaptation. It asks whether society can apply the same rigorous scientific methods to its own social, medical, and economic problems that it uses to map physical geography or process raw materials.

Why Read It Today

This collection offers a compelling window into the late Victorian scientific mindset, catching American and European thinkers at a moment of absolute confidence in empirical research. Readers who enjoy vintage natural history, early psychology, and historical economics will appreciate the prose, which is clear, dignified, and entirely free of modern jargon. The narrative style combines meticulous observation with a genuine eagerness to explain complex systems to an educated public.

The chief difficulty for a contemporary reader lies in the period's social assumptions and technical depth. Articles dealing with social welfare reflect late-nineteenth-century institutional attitudes toward mental disability that read as cold or outdated today. Furthermore, the extensive statistical projections regarding crop acreages and tax policies require patient reading. Yet, what stays with you is the intellectual vitality of the era—a time when a single magazine could seamlessly move from the anatomy of a weasel to the grammar of Southeast Asia, bound together by a boundless curiosity about the material world.