Contribution to the History of the Development of the Humafi Race
By Lazarus (xeiger. Translated by David Asker, Ph. D. Triibner & Co., London. 1880.
The philological inquiries of Lazarus Geiger have earned for him a reputation extending not only through the whole of Germany, hut wherever the study of language, in its relations to historical development, has engaged the attention of the scholar and the investigator. It is therefore a matter for congratulation that any portion of his literary labours is accessible to English readers in the mother tongue. The light thrown by philology on the early efforts of mankind, and of race of men in the path of progress, proves the intensest interest for modern studies, as well as being the surest guide towards the ascertainment of those primary steps of advance which opened up the way for future civilisation. There is not, probably, at the present time a single student of science who has not, at some time or other, felt the intimate connection existing between the growth of language and the development of those characteristics which serve to distinguish nations in the aggregate, and likewise the individuals who go to form them. Observation of the manner in which the child mind gradually expands, and acquires the attributes of adult being, tends to demonstrate how closely ideas are associated with the differences of sound; how thoughts and actions are at first modified as they are influenced by the impressions conveyed by names ; and how, further, there is slowly gained a power of appreciating and weighing the differences that go to form variations in expression and in meaning.
The limited vocabulary of the primitive type is wholly inadequate to the performance of more than the most limited acts of speech, and also it must have rendered impossible the evolution of complicated, or even complex, ideas, if, as we are led to assume, the process of reasoning pre-necessitates the existence of words as tools. The mode in which these words originated will probably remain, for all time, a matter of mere conjecture ; the scornful rejection of theory, whether it be of one kind or another, will do little to place this origin on a certain bads, and in the existence of differing notions concerning the first growth of language we may possibly find a good deal to help in the first apprehension of some view useful in determining the extent of our personal interest in the larger function of after growth. Too much attention, it may almost be said, has been devoted to determining the steps marking the progress of earlier races along the permanent way of improvement; from the nature of the only means at hand to assist in this inquiry, there is reason to think that speculation beyond a certain point must be vain and profitless; the further back into antiquity we are led, the less comprehensible are the evidences of it that come to hand ; indeed, the teaching of Greiger on this head are clear and definite, and are well worthy of universal acceptation. He avers that” man’s works are always the less recognisable the less artistic they are.” “We might, therefore, just happen to discover, from times which are the most important to the origin of things, implements in which we could not with certainty recognise the human hand that fashioned them. Besides, it is with these rude productions of art as with everything that has come into being ; we see them lie before us, indeed, but they tell us nothing about their origin or the mental process that preceded it. Hence, to have any value, the theories of the present should endeavour to explain the significance of those links that bind the ascertained facts of observation, links that are presented in profusion to the diligent student of signs and symbols representative of thought. The earliest endeavours of men, as well as the most recent attempts of discoverers and mechanical geniuses, were directed to the perfection of means for securing personal advantages and comforts. From the outset of civilisation, and along the whole course of its growth, development is marked by the creation of new terms, and extension of the meaning of those already invented. That language of a primitive kind preceded the manufacture of tools, of whatever description, must be accepted, a demand that is in no sense unreasonable since the justice of it is illustrated by reference to the morphological adaptation attendant on the development of human over animal structures. On this head Geiger is so explicit and complete in demonstration that the whole of a lengthy passage may be quoted; and it will serve also to show the elegant perspicacity of his reasoning as evident in the whole volume before us. ” On considering a word denoting an activity carried on with a tool, we shall invariably find it not to have been its original meaning, but that it previously implied a similar activity requiring only the natural organs of man. Let us, e.g., compare the ancient word mahlen (to grind), eniitile (mill), Latin, molo, Greek, /jlvXtj. The process, well known from antiquity, of grinding the grains of the bread fruit between stones, is no doubt simple enough to be presupposed as practised already in the primitive period in one form or another. Nevertheless, the word that we now use for an activity with implements has proceeded from a still more simple conception. The root mal, or war, so widely diffused in the Indo-European family of languages, implies ‘ to grind with the fingers,’ as well as ‘ to crush with the teeth.’ I would remind you of niordeo, ‘ to bite,’ and the Sanskrit root mrid, which implies to pulverise and to rub, e.g., one’s forehead with one’s hand, of the Greek jjiovyco, to spread over and soil with flour, mud, or the like, which may be compared to the Sanskrit mala, ‘ soiling,’ Gothic mulda, ‘ soft earth.’ On the one hand fisas, i black,’ on the other, fxaXaKos, mollis, mellow, belong to this class ; aye, so do even a number of designations of morass-like fluids, and the word meer (sea). In German, two different words from cognate roots perfectly coincide in sound. The malslen (grinding) of the corn and the raalen (painting) of pictures. The fundamental meaning of both is to rub or spread with the fingers ; and an equally close resemblance maybe found in the designation of these two notions in the Latin puiso and puigo?
A thorough evolutionist, Greiger is able to explain the special conformation of man in accordance with the principles of evolution, and in a way so ingenious that it should commend itself to the acceptance of every disciple of the great apostle. He considers that ” the figure of man seems to be a decided indication that the tree must have been his original habitation. His erect gait finds its most natural explanation in his former climbing mode of life, and from his habit of clasping the tree in his ascent we can best explain the transformation of the hand from a motory organ into a grasping one, so that we shall be found to owe to the lowest stage of our culture that seems credible?our distinguishing advantages? the free and commanding elevation of our head, and the possession of that organ which Aristotle has called the ” tool of tools.” We cannot doubt that the explanation of the gradual transformation of human activity, contained in the secrets of philology, is that to which we must trust for the illumination of the dark pages of man’s earlier history; nor can we withhold admiration of the luminous demonstrations of the connection subsisting between words and progress contained in the lectures of Greiger. He frames always a perfect system of illustration, which carries the reader, by the certainty of the conclusions arrived at, to acquiesce unreservedly in the few unverifiable assertions that are made. In a work of the kind we are dealing with, it must of necessity happen that demonstrable proofs are sometimes wanting to complete confirmation, but in every such case the matter is so presented as to ensure the weight of probability in favour of the author’s views. One instance of the kind will suffice. Still speaking of the .origin of tools, Greiger continues : ” I do not hesitate to assert that there must have been a time when man did not possess any implements or tools, but contented himself to work wholly with his natural organs ; that there followed a period when he was already to recognise and use accidentally-found objects resembling those organs, and by their aid to enlarge, heighten, and arm the power of his natural tools?e.g., to employ a hollow shell of a plant as a substitute for the hollow of the hand, which was the first vessel. Not until after the employment of these objects that accidentally presented themselves hud become familiar, did man’s creative activity in the shape of imitation take its rise.”
“The Colour Sense” is the subject of an essay of remarkable power, and one that will have an especial interest for the Alienist. The frequent occurrence of impaired visual sensations among those of unsound mind is a point on which it would be possible to collect a fund of most valuable information, but which, up to the present time, does not appear to have engaged any very particular attention. The persistence with which lunatics will adhere to opinions concerning the hues of common objects; the not uncommon occurrence among them of inability to perceive more than one, or at least two, primary colours, and the frequency of a condition not accurately described as colour blindness, lead one to anticipate that a good deal that is interesting and might be useful in a scientific sense could be obtained by a carefully and systematically conducted series of observations. That ” the history of colour sense is of paramount importance to the total development of sensation,” is incontrovertible; and in the admirably clear and succinct account of the development of the sense given by our author, there is contained the pith of all that has resulted from years of laborious investigation. In connection with this subject, Mr. Grant Allan’s invaluable contribution to the philosophical library of Messrs. Triibner & Co., entitled the ” Colour Sense,” is already well known. The short chapter in Greiger’s work is of course only an indication of the lines on which inquiries have been pursued, but it is so far complete and in place that it blends perfectly with its companion chapters in being a step in the history of man’s primitive development. Whether physiologists will accept the dicta laid down is for them to determine. The philosophical excellence of the article cannot be questioned. Alluding to the universal prevalence of deficient colour sensations in the early ages of man’s existence, and the absence in the oldest records we possess in any tongue of description implying an appreciation of blue, our author says of Homer and the sightlessness attributed to him, ” If, however, this pathological explanation should apply to Homer (his individual existence presupposed), many other poets of antiquity, the whole human race itself, must have been in the same condition during a whole series of millennia.”
“The Origin of Writing,” “The Discovery of Fire,” also “The Primitive Home of the Indo-Europeans,” are the titles of the three concluding papers in the volume. Each reflects the best attributes of a philosophic spirit, and is a model of descriptive reasoning. Involving, as all these essays do, the consideration of subjects on which schools are likely to be ever of differing opinions, it is impossible to withhold a sincere admiration of the calm and dispassionate, although earnest character pervading them throughout. That they will be widely welcomed among English thinkers, and by all who appreciate the philosophic utterances of a master mind, is a certain consequence of these publications.
The addition of this volume to Messrs. Triibner’s English and foreign philosophical library is a wise decision; its tone and teaching are pre-eminently philosophic ; in execution it is scientific in the best sense of that comprehensive term; and the translator of the work, Dr Asker, has succeeded in accomplishing his labour with scholarly excellence. The death of the author himself is an irreparable loss, but the publication of his writings will secure for him the best memorial possible to any worker, viz., admiration of his wondrous powers, and imitation of his greatest deeds.
(1) The State Asylum for Insane Criminals, Auburn, New York.?21 st Report.
In the twelve months ending 30th September 1880, a total of 180 patients were under treatment in the State Asylum for Insane Criminals at Auburn, New York, and of these 31 were discharged. It is satisfactory that only three of the latter left the institution “unimproved;” 14 recovered, 8 were found to be not insane, 2 underwent improvement, and 4 died. The causes of death?always important in connection with the insane?were acute inflammation in three out of the four, pulmonary consumption accounting for the last. Acute meningitis is returned as the cause in one case, this being the only instance noted since the opening of the asylum in 1859. Appended to the pamphlet is a very valuable table indicating the results of post-mortem examination of the four patients who died during the year. The record of the necropsy on the man referred to, gives under ” cause and duration of disorder,” ” two weeks’ excitement from being prevented from escaping,” and the condition of the brain was plainly suggestive of the diagnosis described. The lung was in a state of tubercular infiltration, but ulceration of the nodules had not occurred. Bubo scars were plainly discerned in the groins. The other three cases are similarly carefully described, and the impression conveyed by consideration of these tables is that very much highly valuable information would result from the universal adoption of the plan followed in this report. The tabular contents of it are prepared in a like careful and intelligible manner; one of especial importance gives the probable exciting causes of inREVIEWS AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 141 sanity of tliose admitted daring the year. Naturally c< confinement in prison” yields the largest proportion, eleven, all male, having succumbed to the depression thus produced in 1S80, and a total of 48, amongst them two women, having been affected thus since September 1875. This is itself an instructive fact, as showing the greater power of resistance to oppressive influences possessed by women than by men, a point to which more attention may be given with advantage. ” Unascertained ” causes refer to eight admissions in 1880, and to 47 since 1875. The death rate at the Auburn Asylum is worthy of note as being remarkably low. During the year of which this report treats, it amounted to only 2*18 per cent., a number only one-third the usual rate in insane asylums. This may, of course, be ascribed to several favouring causes, but it must, at any rate in part, be consequent on the excellent medical supervision and sanitary arrangements enjoyed by the patients.
(2) Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the State Lunatic Asylum, Northampton, Mass.
The Trustees of the Northampton State Asylum report that during the year ending September 30, 1880, 559 patients were under treatment. Eighty-four were discharged, and 29 died. Of the discharged, 19 were unimproved, 28 recovered, and 23 left improved. The number of admissions for the twelve months was 117, two having been received twice. The resources of the hospital are now but just sufficient to accommodate the influx of patients from the four western states it is designed to relieve, and the trustees, in view of future demands, have prudently reserved a plot of land adjacent to the asylum grounds on which extensions may, as required, be erected. The subject of unwise discharge is illustrated in this report, in the following passage, which carries its own moral:?” Of the seven persons who had^ previously been treated in the hospital, the condition upon discharge upon those former admissions was as follows: one man recovered once ; one man recovered once, and improved once; and one man much improved once; two women recovered twice each; one <voman recovered once, and improved once; and one woman recovered eight times, and improved three times. The whole number of former recoveries in this hospital, of six of the persons, is fifteen. The same six persons have now been discharged as recovered a total of twentyone times. One of the six?a man?committed* suicide by drowning about ten months after his discharge.”
The following passage is deserving of attention in connection with the question of suicides:?”The death of a woman occurred who, a few days before, had climbed over the baluster of the stairs in the rotunda, and, after hanging a moment by her hands from the rail of the baluster, loosed her hold, and dropped to the floor two stories below. The shock was such that, after lingering nearly five days in a state of unconsciousness, she died. In the table above mentioned, her decease is recorded as the consequence of an injury from a fall. The question is. Was self-destruction intended ? The reader of this account will undoubtedly answer ‘ Yes.’ But they who best knew the woman as she was while in the hospital answer, 4 Probably not.’ She had never manifested any propensity to suicide ; but for several days before the fatal act she had been haunted by an active but vague apprehension that some one was about to injure her?an undefined suspicion or sentiment of approaching evil. Those persons who doubt that she intended suicide believe that the act was performed upon the impulse of the moment to escape from the hospital, believing that by so doing she would avoid that imaginary evil.”
Dr Pliny Earle, on the subject of ” recoveries,” comments strongly and fairly on the unsatisfactoriness of existing measures in regard to the discharge of patients as cured. His conclusions forcibly point the evil of permitting patients to whom reason is apparently restored, being allowed on that account to leave the asylum, and be submitted to the almost certain risk of a return of their malady, at a time when they are far removed from the controlling influences which are alone to be trusted for preserving both them and the public against the consequences of their insanity. l)r. Earle publishes, moreover, the history of a remarkable inquiry he has instituted concerning the meaning of the ” cures” reported from asylums. He deals with a total of 118 cases of insanity treated in American Hospitals, “and the statistics of which have been published in the usual manner in the annual report of those institutions.” He then, after analysing the returns relating to age, sex, and occupation, thus finally concludes of them:?” On the assumption that my information is correct, and I have no reason to doubt either its authenticity or its accuracy, the foregoing tabulated figures are a true representation, so far as they go, of the history, in relation to insanity, of three persons, all of them married women. The three women were admitted to hospitals a total of 118 times, and discharged as ” recovered” (or under some recorded word or words which signified recovery) 102 times. Having contributed the 102 recoveries to the published statistics of insanity, one of them died, insane, in a hospital; another died, insane, at home ; and the third and last, at the age of 75 years, has entered an almshouse there to spend the remainder of her days. In the future, as for many years in the past, so long as she lives, she will doubtless have from one to two attacks of insanity annually; and the probability is that she will eventually die insane.”’ Advocates of early discharge may profitably digest this passage. (3; Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane.?Second Biennial Report.
The Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane, is a new institution, as yet but partially completed, situated at Kankakee, 111. Patients were first received into it on December 4th, 1879, since which time until October 1880, 116 admissions had taken place. Out of these 20 were discharged, viz. six recovered, live much improved, three improved, three stationary, and three dead. One case of death by drowning is noted, the occurrence being declared accidental by the jury before whom an inquiry was held. New buildings are in course of erection, and the accommodation said to be required is that for 350 patients, in addition to the provision already existing. The report by the physician, Dr R. S. Dewey, is satisfactory of the present working condition of the asylum, and particular attention is drawn to the excellent results found to attend the adoption of a system of non-restraint of patients. Their contentedness, and general condition was markedly influenced by the amount of freedom in regard to going and coming about the premises and grounds; restraint and seclusion together have been used only on sixteen days out of the year, and this almost entirely for two cases. ” When mechanical restraint was needed in any case, attendants were ordered to report for instruction to one of the physicians. If its use was allowed, the physician went to see it applied, and the apparatus used was required to be returned from the ward as soon as the time for which it was allowed expired.” This proceeding is commendable, as far as it goes, but it might be improved still further, as in private asylums generally in this country, by the entire abolition of restraint pure and simple. A useful table is incorporated with the reports of Dr Dewey, for recording ^ occurrences, the work, condition of health, variations ot diet, amount of amusement indulged in, &c., &c., of all the patients ot a ward. The adoption of the plan in all asylums won ea to the accumulation of serviceable information with respect to the discovery of improved principles of treatment, tScc. lJie medical and statistical tables are carefully and elaboratel} piepaied, and yield a good deal of instructive reading.
Disclaimer
The historical material in this project falls into one of three categories for clearances and permissions:
Material currently under copyright, made available with a Creative Commons license chosen by the publisher.
Material that is in the public domain
Material identified by the Welcome Trust as an Orphan Work, made available with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
While we are in the process of adding metadata to the articles, please check the article at its original source for specific copyrights.