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 SPHINX LEGAL
SPHINX LEGAL
TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF THE LAW ™

The Complete Guide

SPHINX LEGAL
TAKING THE MYSTERY OUT OF THE LAW ™
✪ Grounds for Divorce Written by a Lawyer
✪ Protecting Your
Assets, Yourself,
to Filing a Divorce A Simple English “Easy to
and Your Children Explanation of the Law understand
in New York

File for Divorce in New York

guides—an
✪ Uncontested and
Contested Divorces Ready-to-Use Forms with excellent source
Detailed Instructions for readers.”
✪ Working with —Library Journal

Lawyers

✪ Mediation and
Arbitration
A divorce can be one of the most painful and expensive experiences of your life.
Whether you use a lawyer or not, protect yourself by getting all the information you
File for
Divorce
Ready-to-Use Forms need about New York divorce law and your legal rights. File for Divorce in New York
with Instructions:
simplifies and explains everything you need to know to work with an attorney or
✔ Certificate of ✔ Annulment
handle your case on your own. Whether you are planning to file for divorce, hire an
Dissolution of
attorney to file for divorce for you or your spouse has already filed, this book will ✔
Marriage Alimony
guide you through the divorce process in New York courts.
✔ Child Support ✔ Separation
Worksheet Complete with step-by-step instructions and the forms you need, this book makes

in
✔ Information about
✔ Judgment of Divorce divorce in New York easy to understand.
Child Support and
• • • • • Custody
✔ Separation and

New
Property Settlement Brette McWhorter Sember received her law degree from ✔
the State University of New York at Buffalo and had a general
Tax Considerations
Agreement
practice focusing on matrimonial and family law, as well as fam-
✔ Division of Property
✔ and many more… ily mediation. She served on the Law Guardian panel (repre-
senting children in family and matrimonial cases) in three New
York counties and served on a variety of committees and panels ✔ Explanation of
✪ New York dealing with matrimonial and family law. New York
divorce statutes Divorce Laws
Sember has authored The Visitation Handbook: Your Complete
✪ Extensive Guide to Parenting Apart, Child Custody, Visitation and Support
in New York as well as six other Sphinx consumer legal titles.

York
appendices with Brette McWhorter
addresses, She teaches a course about life after divorce and writes fre-
phone numbers quently about parenting and family life. Sember
l world Attorney at Law
and websites rea
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for

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glossary of terms l e g a l i n fo r m

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✪ Ready-to-use, Sphinx® Publishing

EAN

blank forms An Imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.®

w w w. Sp h i n x Le g a l . c o m
 File
for
D i vorce
in
N ew Yo r k

Brette McWhorter Sember

Attorney at Law

SPHINX PUBLISHING
®

AN IMPRINT OF SOURCEBOOKS, INC.®

NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS
w w w. S p h i n x Le g a l . c o m
Copyright © 2003 by Brette McWhorter Sember
Cover and internal design © 2003 by Sourcebooks, Inc®
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including
information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—with-
out permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.® Purchasers of the book are granted a license to use the forms
contained herein for their own personal use. No claim of copyright is made to any official government forms reproduced
herein.
First Edition, 2003

Published by: Sphinx® Publishing, An Imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.®

Naperville Office
P.O. Box 4410
Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
630-961-3900
Fax: 630-961-2168
www.sourcebooks.com
www.SphinxLegal.com

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is
sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If
legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the

American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

This product is not a substitute for legal advice.

Disclaimer required by Texas statutes.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sember, Brette McWhorter, 1968-
File for divorce in New York / Brette McWhorter Sember.-- 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-57248-351-2 (pbk.)
1. Divorce--Law and legislation--New York (State)--Popular works. I.
Title.

KFN5126.Z9 S457 2003

346.74701'66--dc22
2003015107

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

VHG Paperback — 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Co n t e n ts

Using Self-Help Law Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Chapter 1: Deciding to Divorce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Understanding the Meaning of Divorce
Considering Your Options
Getting Help
Weighing the Choices

Chapter 2: New York’s Divorce Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Divorce Terms
Costs
Divorce vs. Annulment
Legal Separation vs. Divorce
Court System
Divorce Laws in New York
Issues Resolved by Divorce
Divorce Prerequisites in New York
Ways to Get a Divorce in New York
Grounds for Divorce
iv ◆ file for divorce in new york

Chapter 3: Working With an Attorney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Deciding If You Need an Attorney
Finding an Attorney
Choosing an Attorney
Understanding Attorney Charges
Affording an Attorney
Learning Law Office Procedures
Cooperating with Your Attorney
Identifying Problems with Your Attorney
Changing Your Attorney
Representing Yourself

Chapter 4: Alternative Procedures to Divorce . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Mediation
Arbitration

Chapter 5: Custody and Visitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

The Language of Custody
Thinking about Custody
Understanding How Custody Is Decided
Preparing for a Custody Case
Talking to Your Child about Custody
Court Procedures
Settlements
Visitation Schedules
Experts for Child and Parent Evaluation

Chapter 6: Child Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Child Support Laws
Determining Child Support
Varieties of Child Support
Other Kinds of Support
Taxes
Presenting a Child Support Case
Child Support Hearings

Chapter 7: Financial Survival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Maintenance
Property Division
 contents ◆ v

Chapter 8: The Court System and Court Procedures . . . . . . . . 57

Court Personnel
Courtroom Manners
Organizing Documents and Managing Deadlines
Trials and Hearings

Chapter 9: Temporary Assistance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Determining If You Need a Temporary Order
Seeking a Temporary Order

Chapter 10: Separation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Understanding the Meaning of Separation
Getting a Separation
Separation Agreement
Filing for Separation
Converting Separation to Divorce

Chapter 11: Uncontested Divorce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Uncontested Divorce Forms
Defendants
Step-by-Step Procedure for Uncontested Divorce

Chapter 12: Contested Divorce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Avoiding a Contested Divorce
Differences from an Uncontested Divorce
Understanding Discovery
Property and Debt in a Contested Case
Custody and Visitation
Child Support
Maintenance
Grounds
Settling
Judgment of Divorce
Defendants
Appeals
vi ◆ file for divorce in new york

Chapter 13: Special Situations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Domestic Violence
Child Abuse
Parental Kidnapping
Poor Person Status
Difficulty Locating Your Spouse
Common Law Marriage
No Fault Divorce
Community Property
Changing the Locks
Prenuptial Agreements

Chapter 14: Life after Divorce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Finalizing Your Divorce
Changing Your Name
Coping with Changes in Your New Life
Helping Your Children Cope
Coping as a Single Parent
Surviving Financially
Modifying Your Judgment of Divorce

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Appendix A: Other Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Appendix B: New York Statutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Appendix C: Blank Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
 Using Self-Help
L aw Books

Before using a self-help law book, you should realize the advantages and disad-
vantages of doing your own legal work and understand the challenges and
diligence that this requires.

The Growing Rest assured that you won’t be the first or only person handling your own legal
Trend matter. For example, in some states, more than seventy-five percent of the peo-
ple in divorces and other cases represent themselves. Because of the high cost of
legal services, this is a major trend and many courts are struggling to make it
easier for people to represent themselves. However, some courts are not happy
with people who do not use attorneys and refuse to help them in any way. For
some, the attitude is, “Go to the law library and figure it out for yourself.”

We write and publish self-help law books to give people an alternative to the
often complicated and confusing legal books found in most law libraries. We
have made the explanations of the law as simple and easy to understand as pos-
sible. Of course, unlike an attorney advising an individual client, we cannot
cover every conceivable possibility.
viii ◆ file for divorce in new york

Cost/Value Whenever you shop for a product or service, you are faced with various levels of
Analysis quality and price. In deciding what product or service to buy, you make a
cost/value analysis on the basis of your willingness to pay and the quality you
desire.

When buying a car, you decide whether you want transportation, comfort,
status, or sex appeal. Accordingly, you decide among such choices as a Neon, a
Lincoln, a Rolls Royce, or a Porsche. Before making a decision, you usually
weigh the merits of each option against the cost.

When you get a headache, you can take a pain reliever (such as aspirin) or visit
a medical specialist for a neurological examination. Given this choice, most
people, of course, take a pain reliever, since it costs only pennies; whereas a
medical examination costs hundreds of dollars and takes a lot of time. This is
usually a logical choice because it is rare to need anything more than a pain
reliever for a headache. But in some cases, a headache may indicate a brain
tumor and failing to see a specialist right away can result in complications.
Should everyone with a headache go to a specialist? Of course not, but people
treating their own illnesses must realize that they are betting on the basis of their
cost/value analysis of the situation. They are taking the most logical option.

The same cost/value analysis must be made when deciding to do one’s own legal
work. Many legal situations are very straight forward, requiring a simple form
and no complicated analysis. Anyone with a little intelligence and a book of
instructions can handle the matter without outside help.

But there is always the chance that complications are involved that only an
attorney would notice. To simplify the law into a book like this, several legal
cases often must be condensed into a single sentence or paragraph. Otherwise,
the book would be several hundred pages long and too complicated for most
people. However, this simplification necessarily leaves out many details and
nuances that would apply to special or unusual situations. Also, there are many
ways to interpret most legal questions. Your case may come before a judge who
disagrees with the analysis of our authors.

Therefore, in deciding to use a self-help law book and to do your own legal
work, you must realize that you are making a cost/value analysis. You have
decided that the money you will save in doing it yourself outweighs the chance
that your case will not turn out to your satisfaction. Most people handling their
own simple legal matters never have a problem, but occasionally people find
 using self-help law books ◆ ix

that it ended up costing them more to have an attorney straighten out the situ-
ation than it would have if they had hired an attorney in the beginning. Keep
this in mind while handling your case, and be sure to consult an attorney if you
feel you might need further guidance.

Local Rules The next thing to remember is that a book which covers the law for the entire
nation, or even for an entire state, cannot possibly include every procedural dif-
ference of every jurisdiction. Whenever possible, we provide the exact form
needed; however, in some areas, each county, or even each judge, may require
unique forms and procedures. In our state books, our forms usually cover the
majority of counties in the state, or provide examples of the type of form which
will be required. In our national books, our forms are sometimes even more gen-
eral in nature but are designed to give a good idea of the type of form that will
be needed in most locations. Nonetheless, keep in mind that your state, county,
or judge may have a requirement, or use a form, that is not included in this book.

You should not necessarily expect to be able to get all of the information and
resources you need solely from within the pages of this book. This book will
serve as your guide, giving you specific information whenever possible and
helping you to find out what else you will need to know. This is just like if you
decided to build your own backyard deck. You might purchase a book on how
to build decks. However, such a book would not include the building codes and
permit requirements of every city, town, county, and township in the nation;
nor would it include the lumber, nails, saws, hammers, and other materials and
tools you would need to actually build the deck. You would use the book as your
guide, and then do some work and research involving such matters as whether
you need a permit of some kind, what type and grade of wood are available in
your area, whether to use hand tools or power tools, and how to use those tools.

Before using the forms in a book like this, you should check with your court
clerk to see if there are any local rules of which you should be aware, or local
forms you will need to use. Often, such forms will require the same information
as the forms in the book but are merely laid out differently or use slightly different
language. They will sometimes require additional information.

Changes in Besides being subject to local rules and practices, the law is subject to change at
the Law any time. The courts and the legislatures of all fifty states are constantly revising
the laws. It is possible that while you are reading this book, some aspect of the
law is being changed.
x ◆ file for divorce in new york

In most cases, the change will be of minimal significance. A form will be

redesigned, additional information will be required, or a waiting period will be
extended. As a result, you might need to revise a form, file an extra form, or wait
out a longer time period; these types of changes will not usually affect the out-
come of your case. On the other hand, sometimes a major part of the law is
changed, the entire law in a particular area is rewritten, or a case that was the
basis of a central legal point is overruled. In such instances, your entire ability
to pursue your case may be impaired.

Again, you should weigh the value of your case against the cost of an attorney
and make a decision as to what you believe is in your best interest.
Introduction

If you are considering divorce or are in the process of getting one, you are prob-
ably overwhelmed and confused. There are so many choices to make, so many
things to deal with, and so many problems to cope with. This is probably one
of the most confusing and frightening times in your life, whether you want the
divorce to happen or not. This book is your guide to all the choices you face,
and the many problems you might encounter.

Divorce in New York is not a simple process. The options might seem confus-
ing—annulment, uncontested divorce, mediation, arbitration, contested
divorce, or separation. The cost of hiring an attorney might be more than you
can afford. The things that have to be decided in your divorce—who gets the
house, where the children will live, how to survive financially, how to divide up
all the stuff, and who will pay all the bills—may seem mind-boggling.

The actual paperwork and court process of the divorce, itself, might seem
imposing or scary to you. How do you get a fair shake, ask for everything you
want, and make sure your spouse does not walk off with the whole store? How
do you deal with judges, attorneys and all the forms?

This book will help you understand what your options are, what the law says,
how the actual divorce process works, how to use mediation, how to find and
xii ◆ file for divorce in new york

work with a lawyer if that is what you want to do, and how to fill out the forms
and file them yourself if you want to handle your own divorce. Even if you do
not want to handle your own divorce, the forms in this book will save you time
and money with your attorney. You will have all the information ready for your
attorney and you will not have to spend a lot of time asking basic questions
about New York divorce law at a rate of over $100 an hour. You will also find
helpful resources and practical advice about managing your emotions and deal-
ing with paperwork, gathering evidence, and planning.

Using this book will help you control your costs. It answers many of your ques-
tions, thus reducing the hours you need from an attorney. The book also allows
you to do some or all of the divorce paperwork and court appearances on your
own. Many people use this book to get a head start on their divorce, then turn
to an attorney for assistance if things get complicated or frightening.

Chapter 1 helps you with your decision to divorce. Chapter 2 explains the
divorce process in New York. Chapter 3 explains how to work with an attorney.
Chapter 4 discusses mediation. Chapter 5 looks at the law about custody and
visitation. Chapter 6 discusses child support. Chapter 7 looks at temporary
assistance. Chapter 8 discusses court procedures. Chapter 9 explains how to get
temporary assistance. Chapter 10 discusses separation. Chapter 11 explains the
uncontested divorce procedure. Chapter 12 discusses the contested divorce pro-
cedure. Chapter 13 considers certain special situations. Chapter 14 discusses life
after divorce.

NOTE: If you are a victim of domestic violence, you need an attorney to assist you.
You can obtain an Order of Protection against your spouse yourself by going to your
local Family Court.

You should also be aware that this book does not discuss situations involving out-of-
state spouses. If you or your spouse reside in another state, you need an attorney to
assist you.

•••••

You may contact the author at her website:

www.MooseintheBirdbath.com
 introduction ◆ xiii

Using the Forms in This Book

This book includes all the forms needed to handle a divorce on your own. It is
important to note that you should make copies of all the forms before filling
anything in. Most judges will not accept forms that have printing on both sides,
so make sure that when you complete the forms, you do so on one-sided copies.

Keep a copy of each form you complete in a file. Try to keep the forms organized
in the order in which you file them. When you file some forms with the court,
you will receive a receipt or a stamped copy. Keep those in your file as well.

Be aware that forms change and some judges have particular requirements. If
something you submit is not accepted by a clerk or judge, ask politely how to
correct the mistake.

Divorce is not easy for anyone. But with the help of this book, you can approach
it in an organized and intelligent way.
Other documents randomly have
different content
Fig. 16.—Copy of a series of modified geese painted on an early Mykenæan
pot, figured by M. Perrot. Each has two jointed appendages on the back,
which suggest the wing feathers of the bird or two of the jointed legs (cirri)
 of the barnacle, which issue in life from this part of the barnacle's shell. The
legs of the geese are very small and absent in the fifth. The markings on the
body differ in each bird, but recall the shell of the barnacle divided into
several valves marked with parallel striations. They may also pass for the
plumage of the bird.
The intention of the artist to fantastically insist on intermediate
phases between goose and barnacle is placed beyond doubt by
certain details. For instance, in Fig. 16, the little jointed processes on
the back of the goose marked a, correspond in position to the cirri or
legs of the barnacle. They are reduced in number to two, and
simplified in form so as to pass for the tips of the wings of the
goose. The goose's own feet are represented in their natural
position. The most extraordinary piece of resemblance in detail is
that given in Fig. 15, B, which is a copy of a very much
"barnaculized" goose from one of these ancient dishes. What does
the Mykenæan artist mean to represent by the strange single leg-like
limb marked pe? When we carefully examine the barnacle's soft
body concealed by its shell, it becomes obvious that this leg-like
thing corresponds to the single stalk-like body, ending in a bunch of
a few hairs which is marked pe in Fig. 15, C. This last-named figure
is a careful modern representation of the soft living barnacle, as
seen when the shells of one side are removed. The cylindrical body
pe of Fig. 15, C, which is drawn by the Mykenæan artist on an
exaggerated scale in Fig. 15, B, is the external opening of the
seminal duct of the barnacle. It is remarkable that the Mykenæan
pottery-painter had observed the soft "fish" of the barnacle so
minutely as to select this unpaired and very peculiar-looking
structure, and represent it of exaggerated size attached in its proper
position on the barnacle-like body of a goose. This very striking
transference of a peculiar and characteristic organ of the barnacle to
the body of the goose by the artist seems not to have been noticed
by M. Houssay.
M. Houssay further points out the existence on some of the
Mykenæan pottery of drawings (see "L'Ossuaire de Crète," by MM.
Perrot and Chipiez) of leaves attached to tree-like stems. These
leaves (Fig. 18, a, b, c) exhibit the same
markings ("venation") which we see on
the bodies of the geese in Fig. 16,
especially the middle one of the five. The
leaves (or fruits?) copied by M. Houssay
from the Mykenæan pottery are attached
in a series to a stem—but no one, at
present, has suggested what plant it is
which is represented. The corners of the
leaf or fruit to the right and left of its stalk
are thrown into a spiral—and the half leaf
or half fruit represented in Fig. 18, b,
leads us on to that drawn in Fig. 18, c, in
which the spiral corner is slightly modified
in curvature so as to resemble the head
and neck of the goose as drawn in Fig.
16. Though Fig. 18, c, is as yet devoid of
legs or wing feathers (compare Fig. 16,
d), the black band along the belly with Fig. 17.—Two drawings
the band of vertical markings above it on pottery of
agrees closely with the design on the modified geese, from
body of the middle goose of the series Perrot's "Ossuaire
de Crète." The three
drawn in Fig. 16. As these are associated lines above the back
in the decoration of the Mykenæan of the upper figure
artists, it is fairly evident that the probably represent
intention has been to manipulate the the legs or cirri of
drawing of the leaf or fruit so as to make the barnacle, which
are represented by
it resemble the drawing of the goose, two jointed appendages
whilst that in its turn is modified so as to in the geese
emphasize or idealize its points of shown in Fig. 16.
resemblance to a barnacle.
It is true enough that the drawings from
Mykenæan pots here submitted cannot be considered as a complete
demonstration that the legend of the tree-goose originated with
these drawings. But it must be remembered that we have only a
 small number of examples of this
pottery surviving from a thousand
years B.C. It is probable that the
fanciful decorative design of a master
artist was copied and used in the
painting of hundreds of pots by mere
workmen or inferior craftsmen, and
that more complete and impressive
designs showing the fanciful
transformation of leaf or fruit to
goose, and of goose to barnacle,
existed both before and after the
making of the particular pots and jars
which have come down to us. The
supposition made by M. Houssay
(which I entirely support) is that
some later Levantine people—to
whom these decorated pots or copies
of their decorations became known
either in the regular way of trade or
Fig. 18.—Leaves from as sailors' "curios"—were led to
the tree, drawn on a attempt an explanation of the
Mykenæan pot which,
according to M. Perrot, significance of the pictures drawn
are fancifully designed upon them, and in accordance with a
so as to assume step by well-known and rooted tendency—
step (a, b, c) the form interpreted the fancies of the artist as
of a goose. This appears careful representations of astonishing
either to represent
the tree which, according fact. The existence of a tree which
to legend, produced produces buds which become birds,
birds as buds on its and of a barnacle which becomes
branches, or to be a transformed into a goose—is the
fanciful design which matter-of-fact interpretation of the
gave rise to that legend.
The artist's intention of few pictures of these animals which
making the leaf gradually have come down to us, modern men,
pass into the semblance painted on the few pots of that
of a goose, is remote Mykenæan industry now in
 strongly emphasized by our museums. It is not at all unlikely
the purely fanciful that in the vast period of time
"venation" of the
leaf which agrees with
between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D.,
the equally fanciful ornament the more striking of these designs
of the bodies of had been copied and familiarized in
the geese in Fig. 16, some part of the ancient world. It is
especially the middle true that we do not at present know
one of the series.
in what part: we have not yet come
across these designs of later date
than 800 B.C. The absence of the
story of the tree-goose from Greek and Roman lore is striking.
Neither Aristotle nor Herodotus knew of it, although it has been
erroneously stated that they refer to it. Yet the source of it was there
in the Greek isles almost under their noses (if one may speak of the
noses of such splendid and worshipful men of old) in the artistic
work—otherwise not unknown to the Greeks—of a civilization which
preceded their own by hundreds of years. There is other and ample
evidence—as for instance that of the representation of the "flying
gallop" (see "Science from an Easy Chair," Second Series, pp. 57 and
63), showing that Mykenæan art had little or no direct effect on the
Hellenes, although the reputation of the skill of the old race in metal
work came through many generations to them. Mykenæan art
seems to have migrated with Mykenæan settlers to the remote
region of the Caucasus. In the necropolis of Koban and other remote
settlements, Mykenæan designs in bronze and gold—including the
horse in flying gallop and octopods transformed to bull's heads—
have been found and pictured (Ernest Chantre, "Recherches
anthropologique dans Caucase," 4 vols.: Paris, 1886). They are
believed to date from 500 B.C. It is possible that in such remote
regions or in some of the Greek islands the pictures of the tree-
goose and the barnacle may have survived until the new
dispensation—that is, until the days of the Byzantine Empire. Once
we can trace either the pictures or the legend up to that point, there
is no difficulty about admitting the radiation of the wonderful story
from that centre to the Jews of the Kabbalah, to Arabic writers, and
so to the learned men of the Christian Church and the seats of
learning throughout Europe and a great part of Asia.
Of the history of the legend during two thousand years we have no
actual knowledge. It remains for investigation. But undoubtedly
these Mykenæan pottery paintings remove the origin of the story to
a period two thousand years older than that of the Irish monks.
One additional fact I may mention as to the existence of the goose
and barnacle legend in the East. I am informed that in Java there is,
according to "native" story, a shell-fish the animal of which becomes
transformed into a bird—said to be a kind of snipe—and flies from
the shell. I have been shown the shell by a Dutch lady who has lived
in Java. It is a large fresh-water mussel, one of the Unionidæ. I have
failed to obtain, after inquiry, any further information as to the
prevalence or origin of this story in Java, and hope that some one
who reads this page may be able to help me.
Before leaving the story of the goose and the barnacle, the
explanation of the myth given by Prof. Max Müller in his lectures on
the science of language nearly fifty years ago, should be cited. It is
an excellent example of the misuse of hypothesis in investigation,
and the attempt to explain something which we cannot get at and
examine by making a supposition which it is even more difficult to
examine and test.
Max Müller made use of the observation—a perfectly true and
interesting one—that a whole people or folk will be led to a wrong
conclusion, or to a belief in some strange and marvellous
occurrence, by the misunderstanding of a single word, attributing to
that word a sense which now fits the sound, but one quite different
from that with which the word was originally used in the tradition or
history concerned. Words are, in fact, misinterpreted after a lapse of
time, or when imported from distant lands, just as we have seen
that pictures and sculpture often have been. For instance, Richard
Whittington, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1398 and other later
years, did business in French goods, which was spoken of in the city
as "achat," and pronounced "akat." Hence in later centuries, when
the prevalence of Norman French was forgotten, it was stated (in a
play produced in 1605) that Whittington owed his fortune to "a cat,"
and the story of the wonderful cat and its deeds was built up "line
upon line" or "lie upon lie." Max Müller suggested that the story of
the barnacle and the goose could be similarly explained. The brant
or brent goose which frequents the Irish shore was, he supposes,
called "berniculus" by the Latin-speaking clergy as a diminutive of
Hibernicus, meaning "Irish." There is absolutely no evidence to
support this. Max Müller supposes that Hibernicus became
"Hiberniculus," and then dropping the first syllable became
"Berniculus," and that this word was applied to the "Irish goose." It
might have been, but there is nothing to show that it was.
Meanwhile the ship's barnacle and other sea-shells were called in the
Celtic tongue "barnagh," "berniche," or "bernak," and the hermit-
crab is still called on the Breton coast, "Bernard l'hermite," a
modification of "bernak l'hermite." There is no doubt that the word
"barnacle" as applied to the stalked shell-fish growing on ships'
bottoms is a diminutive of the Celtic word "bernak," or "barnak." It
became in Latin "barnacus," and then the diminutive "barnaculus,"
and so "barnacle" was used for the little stalked shell-fish encrusting
old timber. According to Max Müller, later generations thus found the
two animals, goose and shell-fish, called by the same name,
"bernikle," or "barnacle." "Why?" they would ask: and then (he
supposes) they would compare the two and detect points of
resemblance, until at last a very devout and astute monk had the
happy thought of declaring that the Hibernian goose was called
"berniculus," or "barnak-goose," because it did not breed from eggs
as other birds do, but is hatched out of the shell of the shell-fish,
also very naturally and rightly called "berniculus," or barnak, as any
one may see by carefully examining the fish contained in the shell of
the barnacle or little stalked "barnak," which has the complete form
of a bird. Since, however, it is not a bird, but a fish in nature and
origin, this holy man declared that the "berniculus," or "barnacle-
goose," may be eaten on fast days. Max Müller's explanation of the
origin of the story is too adventurous in its unsupported assumption
that the particular goose associated with the story was peculiarly
Irish, or that, in fact, any kind of goose was so. He also put aside
the evidence of Father Damien (earlier than the Irish story of
Giraldus) referring the goose-tree to an island in the Indies, and the
report cited in the Oriental book the "Zohar." However plausible Max
Müller's theory may have appeared, it absolutely crumbles and
disappears in the presence of the Mykenæan pictures of
"barnaculized" geese, and trees budding birds—two thousand years
older than the Irish record, and nearly three thousand years earlier
than the essay of the charming and persuasive professor.
 CHAPTER XVI

SEA-SHELLS ON THE SEASHORE

A
NY hard coat or covering enclosing a softer material is called a
"shell"—thus we speak of an egg-shell, a nut-shell, a bomb-shell,
and the shell of a lobster. But there is a special and restricted use of
the word to indicate as "true" and "real" shells the beautiful coverings
made for their protection by the soft, mobile animals called Molluscs.
These animals expand and contract first this and then that region of
the body by squeezing the blood within it (by means of the soft
muscular coat of the sac-like body) into one part or another in turn.
There is not enough blood to distend the whole animal, and
accordingly one part is swollen out and protrudes from the shell,
whilst another shrinks as the blood is propelled here or there by the
compressing muscular coat. These creatures are the Molluscs, a
name which has come into general use (and has even served as the
title for a stage-play), as well as being the zoologist's title for the
great division of animals which they constitute.
They are sometimes called "shell-fish," but this is no good as a
distinctive name—since it is applied in the fish-trade to lobsters,
crabs, and shrimps as well as to Molluscs. Lobsters, crabs, and
shrimps are Crustacea, and totally different in their architecture and
their mechanism from Molluscs. Familiar examples of Molluscs are the
oyster, the mussel, the various "clams," and, again, the snails,
periwinkles, whelks, and limpets. It is the shells of these animals
which are "true" shells in the sense in which the word is used by
"collectors" of shells, and in the sense in which we speak of "the
shells of the seashore." These shells are usually very hard, solid
things, made up of layers of lime-salts and horny matter mixed, and
they remain for a long time undestroyed, washed about by the
currents of the sea, and thrown up on to the beach, after the soft,
oozy creature which formed them—chemically secreted them on its
soft skin—has decomposed and disappeared. They are readily
distinguished into two sorts—(1) those which are formed in pairs, or
"bivalves," each member of the pair being called a "valve"; and (2)
those which are single, or "univalves," often spirally twisted, as are
those of snails and whelks, but sometimes cap-like or basin-like, as
are the shells of the limpets. There is not so great a difference
between bivalve and univalve shells as there seems to be at first
sight. For if you examine the pair of shells of a mussel or a clam
when they are quite fresh, you will find that the valves are joined
together by a horny, elastic substance, and are, in fact, only one
horny shell, or covering, which is made hard by lime deposited on the
right and on the left, as two plates or valves, but is left soft and
uncalcified along a line where these two valves meet, so as to allow
them to move and gape, as it were, on an elastic hinge. It is the fact
that the two valves of the shell of the bivalve, lying right and left on
its body, correspond to the single shell of the snail or limpet, which
differs from the bivalve-shell in not being divided along the back by a
soft part into right and left pieces. That there is this real agreement
between bivalve and univalve molluscs is quite evident when we
examine the soft animal which forms the shell and is protected by it.

Fig. 19.—Some British Marine Bivalve Molluscs.

 a, The smaller Piddock, Pholas parva, which bores into chalk, clay, and hard
rock. Natural size.
b, The Razor-shell, Solen siliqua. The muscular foot is seen protruding from
the shell. One-third the natural size, linear.
c, Venus verrucosa. Natural size.
d, Cardium echinatum. Two-thirds the natural size, linear.
e, Pinna pectinata, the "cappy longy." One-fifth of the natural size, linear.
Though "shells" are often numerous on parts of the seashore, some
beaches (as, for instance, at Falmouth, at the mouth of the Eden of
St. Andrews, and at Herm in the Channel Islands) being so placed in
regard to the currents and waves of the sea that great quantities of
shells of dozens of species are thrown up, and even "make up" the
beach, yet there are not so very many Molluscs which live commonly
on the shore between tide-marks. The shells which are accumulated
as shell-beaches have come from animals which lived in quantity at
depths of ten or twenty fathoms, whence they can be brought up
alive by the dredge. There are, however, certain bivalves and certain
univalves which are commonly to be found in the living state between
tide-marks. You will not find the oyster there on our own coast, but in
Australia they have picnic parties where every guest provides himself
with a hammer and a bottle of vinegar and a pepper-pot, and at low
tide proceeds to chip the oysters off the rocks on which they grow
tightly fixed, and to eat them "right away" before they have time to
lose their good temper and sweetness! In Jamaica they show you
oysters apparently growing on trees high up in the air, but they are
dead, having attached themselves to the branches of a young tree
which dipped into the water. Once fixed there, they were unable to
move as the tree grew and carried them up with its branches above
the sea-level.
The only bivalve at all common and visible to the eye between tide-
marks is the common or edible sea-mussel, which is attached in
purple clusters to the rocks (as in North Cornwall), or forms a wide-
spreading pavement, called a "scalp," of as much as an acre in
extent, on which thousands of mussels lie side by side. But by
digging in the sand and mud between tides there are other living
bivalves to be found, which burrow more or less deeply. The razor-
shell (Fig. 19, b) is one of these (see p. 80). Often (as at Teignmouth
and Barmouth) we find "cockles" buried in the sand, and those
delicate, smooth bivalves not an inch long, white outside and purple
within, which are made into soup at Naples and are called "vongoli,"
but have no English name. Other "clams" (Tapes, which is eaten in
France, even in Paris, and Mya, and Scrobicularia which lives in black
mud) may be dug up, but they are devoid of English names because
we do not eat them; hence I have to speak of them by their Latin
scientific names. As to univalves, there are three which are found
almost everywhere on our coasts where there are rocks, namely, the
periwinkles (one species of which actually lives above high tide-
mark), the limpet, and the dog-whelk. A small species of top-shell or
trochus is also very common, and so is the chiton, or armadillo-shell,
which, though really the most primitive and nearest representative of
the ancestors of all univalve molluscs, yet has its own shell of a very
peculiar character (sometimes with very minute eyes—true eyes—
dotted about on it), and always divided transversely to its length (not
right and left) into eight separate pieces, which, indeed, seem to be
really separate, independent little shells, corresponding to eight
segments like the segments of a shrimp or an earth-worm.
Let us now compare the soft animal of one of the bivalves—say the
common cockle—with the soft animal to which a univalve shell
belongs—say the limpet. They can be kept alive and watched in a
finger-glass of sea-water, and can be removed from their shells and
examined more closely—by killing them by dipping them for half a
minute into very hot (not boiling) water. Both these molluscs—like all
others—adhere tightly at one place to the shell. They cannot be
removed from it alive, and make a new shell or creep back into the
old one, as can some worms (e.g. the serpula) and other creatures
which form a hard shell to live in. Certain muscles of the soft mollusc
are so closely fixed to the shell that they must be torn in order to
separate it. These muscles draw the two valves of the bivalve
together, and shut it tight. You can verify this whenever the oyster-
man "opens" an oyster for you. When at rest the shells gape, being
kept open by the horny, elastic hinge-piece. Some bivalves (for
instance, the common scallop, or pilgrim's shell, which can often be
dredged in shallow water, and of which a large kind is sold in the
London fish shops) actually swim in the sea-water by aid of this
mechanism, the shells opening by elasticity and being closed by the
muscle joining one to the other, at rapid intervals, flapping like the
wings of a butterfly.
In the univalves the attachment of the muscle to the shell gives a
fixed point for all the movements of the animal. The limpet has a
well-marked head and neck—a pair of sensitive tentacles, and a small
pair of dark-coloured eyes. The mouth is at the end of a sort of short
snout. Just within the mouth, and capable of being pushed forwards
to the level of the lips, is a most extraordinary rasp. It consists of a
long ribbon, beset with fine horny teeth—very sharp and complicated
in pattern. The ribbon extends far back into the body, and is worn
away by constant use at the orifice of the mouth. It grows forward,
like one of our finger-nails, as it wears out, and a new, unworn
portion takes the place of that worn away. It is constantly in use to
rasp and bring into the mouth the particles of the seaweed on which
the limpet feeds. It is easy to remove this rasping ribbon with a
needle or pen-knife, and examine it with a microscope. Every one of
the hundreds of kinds of univalve molluscs has this ribbon-rasp, and
its teeth are of different patterns in the various kinds. It is worked by
very powerful little muscles, backwards and forwards, and is strong
enough in the whelks to bore a round hole into other shells (for
instance, that of the oyster), when the whelk proceeds to eat the soft
animal, whose protecting shell has been thus penetrated. Some of
the large marine snails produce a poisonous secretion from the
mouth, which renders their attack with the ribbon-rasp all the more
deadly to other marine creatures. The cuttle-fishes and octopods,
which are molluscs too, possess, like the univalve limpets, snails, and
whelks, this terrible ribbon-rasp in the mouth. It is an indication of a
common parentage or ancestral relationship in the forms which
possess it.
The cockle (Fig. 19, d), to which we now turn, has not got a ribbon-
rasp, nor anything of the kind. It has a mouth with four flapper-like
lips, but no projecting head, no eyes, no biting mechanism, nor have
any of the bivalves, excepting a few which like the scallop have a
series of eyes on the edge of the soft mantle or flap which lines the
shell. This constitutes a greater difference between bivalves and the
univalves than does the shape of the shell. They are a very quiescent,
peaceful lot, feeding on microscopic floating plants (diatoms and
such), which are drawn to the mouth by currents of water set going
by millions of vibrating hairs arranged on four soft plates hanging
under the protecting arch of the shell, and called in the oyster—in
which bivalve most people know them—the "beard."
The limpet adheres to rocks by a great disk-like mass of muscle,
which is called "the foot." It is really the whole ventral surface, and it
can loosen its hold, and, by curious ripples of contraction, cause the
animal to creep or glide over the rock. At low tide the limpet is
exposed to the air, and remains motionless, but when the tide is up it
makes a small excursion in search of food, never going more than a
foot or two from the spot which it has chosen, and returning to it, so
that in the course of time it actually wears away a sort of cup or
depression at this spot—if the rock is not of exceptional hardness.
The word "foot" is applied to the ventral disk-like surface of the
limpet, because in many univalves this region becomes drawn out,
and is connected by a comparatively narrow and nipped-in stalk or
pillar with the rest of the animal. This occurs in the univalves which
have large spiral shells, into which the whole of the soft animal can
be deeply withdrawn, which is not the case with the limpet. You may
find on the shore at Torquay a sea-snail (Natica), in which the animal
is quite invisible, drawn far up into the shell. Place this in sea-water
and watch it. Soft semi-transparent lobes begin to issue from the
mouth of the shell, part of the soft distensible foot appears swelling
out and growing bigger and bigger, and soft folds spread out from the
mouth of the shell, and gently creep over it, and completely envelop
it; the foot begins to grip the bottom of the vessel, and the animal
"crawls." At last, swelling out from the other folds of soft but tense
"molluscan" substance, the head and its tentacles emerge. Touch the
animal and it shrinks rapidly, disappearing into the shell.
It used to be thought (about twenty-five years ago) that the molluscs
expand their bodies in this manner by taking water, through definite
apertures provided with valves, into their blood, and that, having thus
swelled themselves out, they could shrink and reduce themselves by
pouring out again the in-taken water. The behaviour of some other
marine animals, namely the sea-anemones, which really do act in this
way, made this explanation of the swelling and shrinking of molluscs
seem probable. It was also known that the star-fishes and sea-
urchins actually do take in the sea-water into a system of vessels
connected with their wonderful sucker-bearing tentacles. But it
turned out on close examination that the molluscs do not take in or
shed out water in this way. A hole, which was thought to let in water
into the blood of sea-snails, was shown to be only the opening of a
great slime-gland. In the case of some bivalves which have red-blood
corpuscles, I showed that the blood is never made paler, nor are the
red corpuscles shed during the great distensions and contractions of
the body. Measurements were made to determine the removal of
water from a glass jar by an expanding sea-snail, and it was found
that none is removed or taken up; in fact, the whole of what is very
often an astonishingly large and bulky distension of the foot, or of
lobes of the body, and the subsequent rapid shrinking of the same
parts, depend entirely on the blood being injected from the rest of
the body into the swelling part, and squeezed from it into the
depleted region when the swollen part shrinks again. The firm,
opaque shell hides from view the change of shape of the concealed
body, and we see only the distended foot or other lobes which project
from the shell.
The cockle has a "foot" of a very curious scythe-like shape, usually
carried bent up between the two valves of the shell. Those who
rightly like to confirm statements about unfamiliar animals can do so
by buying a cockle or two at the fishmonger's. Some bivalves (the
Noah's-ark-shell, called "Arca," and a few others) have a great flat
foot, like that of the univalves, and crawl about on it. But in most
bivalves it is curiously elongated and modified, for the purpose of
burrowing into sand by vigorous strokes, and in some it is suppressed
altogether, as in the oyster. The cockle is remarkable for the fact that
when placed on a board or a rock it will give such a vigorous kick
with its bent foot as to throw itself up a yard or so into the air. A
naturalist (Stutchbury) dredging in Port Jackson, Australia, many
years ago was overjoyed at discovering in his net three specimens of
a very peculiar kind of cockle (Trigonia), which was till then only
known in the fossil state from the oolite strata of Europe. He placed
the three novelties on the seat of his boat, and was looking at other
things when he heard a click-like sound, then another. He turned his
head and saw that two of his newly-discovered "living fossils" had
jumped overboard, and had the pleasure of seeing the third perform
the same feat!
 CHAPTER XVII

SAND-HOPPERS

W
HEREVER there is a sandy seashore with here and there masses
of dead seaweed and corallines thrown up by the waves, you
will find sand-hoppers feeding on the debris. They are crustaceans,
like crabs, shrimps, and barnacles, but in general aspect resemble
enormous fleas. I hope that this comparison will not enable any
reader at once to picture the less familiar by the more familiar. A
good-sized sand-hopper is about half an inch long, and jumps not by
means of a specially large pair of legs as the flea does, but by the
stroke of the hind body, the jointed rings of which are carried curled
downwards and ready to give a sudden blow. The sand-hopper (Fig.
20, a) has some of the rings or segments of the mid-body distinct,
and not fused with those of the head or overhung by a great shield
as in the lobster, crab, and shrimp. His walking legs and jaw-legs are
also not quite of the same shape, though similar to those of a
lobster, and his two little black eyes are not mounted on stalks, but
are flush with the surface of the head. There are two quite distinct
kinds of sand-hopper which live in crowds together on our sandy
shores. They are not very different, but still are distinguished by
naturalists from one another; one is called Talitrus (Fig. 20, a), the
other Orchestia (Fig. 20, b). They are very similar in appearance and
structure to a fresh-water creature common in weedy streams,
which has no English name (except the general one of "fresh-water
shrimp"), and is called by naturalists Gammarus.
In the open sea there are many hundreds of kinds of small
crustaceans resembling the sand-hoppers in their compressed (not
flattened) shape of body and in the details of their legs and the
grouping of the joints
of the body. Many of
the smallest
crustaceans which
swarm in the surface
waters of the sea and
form part of that
floating population,
mostly of small
transparent or
iridescent and blue
creatures, which we Fig. 20.—a, Talitrus locusta, b, Orchestia littorea,
call the "plankton," or the two common kinds of "sand-hopper." Of the
"surface-floating" natural size. c, A kind of small lobster which
population, and may burrows in the sand, Callianassa subterranea.
About two-thirds the natural size, linear.
be gathered by
towing a very fine
net behind a boat on
a quiet day, can produce flashes of light which are vivid enough
when seen at night. They contribute, together with jelly-fish and the
teeming millions of minute bladder-like Noctiluca, and other
unicellular animalcules, to produce that wonderful display seen from
time to time on our coasts, and called "the phosphorescence of the
sea." These minute crustaceans produce flashes of light by suddenly
squeezing from pits or glands in the skin a secretion which is
chemically acted on (probably oxidized) by the sea-water, the
chemical action setting up light-vibrations, but not the usual excess
of heat-vibrations to which we are accustomed when light
accompanies ordinary "burning" or "combustion."
 Fig. 21.—A Phosphorescent Shrimp (Euphausia pellucida).
The lamp-like phosphorescent organs are numbered 1 to 6. There is another
on the outer edge of the stalked eye, making seven in all on each side of the
animal. g, points to the hindermost gill, enlarged.

Other crustaceans of several kinds, of an inch and more in length—

transparent, delicate creatures, resembling small prawns in
appearance—also produce light. Some of them are known by names
referring to this fact, such as Lucifer (light-bearer) and Nyctiphanes
(night-shiner). They possess special lantern-like knobs scattered
about on the body, which have transparent lenses, and resemble
small bull's-eye lanterns. Some have a row of seven lanterns on each
side of the body (Fig. 21), but one kind has as many as 150 dotted
about. These lanterns were only a few years ago thought to be eyes,
and their elaborate microscopic structure was described as that of an
eye. Of course, this was due to the fact that dead preserved
specimens were studied, and not the living animal. Some twenty
years ago I witnessed a most impressive exhibition of these
phosphorescent shrimps at the house of my friend Sir John Murray,
of the "Challenger," at Millport, on the Clyde. He had obtained them
(the kind called Nyctiphanes) in great quantities at a depth of ninety
fathoms in the great Scotch fiord, and amongst other curious facts
about them had shown that they enter Loch Fyne in vast numbers,
and are the special nourishment of the celebrated Loch Fyne
herrings. It had been noticed that the intestine of the plump, well-
fed herrings is full of a deep-black substance, and Sir John Murray
showed that this was the black, indigestible pigment of the eyes of
the hundreds of phosphorescent shrimps swallowed by these
favoured fish, which owe their fine quality to their special
opportunity for feeding in the depths of the loch on the exceptionally
abundant and nutritious light-producing crustaceans! At night my
friend showed me a large glass vessel holding four or five gallons, in
which were a hundred or so of the phosphorescent shrimps
swimming around. We turned out the lamps of the room, and all was
dark. Then a gentle tap was given to the jar, and each little
crustacean lit up, as though by order, a row of seven minute lamps
on each side of its body, swimming along meanwhile, and reminding
one of a passenger steamer, as seen from the shore, as it glides
along at night with its lights showing through a row of cabin
windows. The shrimps' lights shone steadily for a minute or so, then
ceased, and had to be lit up again by again signalling their owners
by knocking on the glass. These little lamps, with their bull's-eye
lenses, are far more elaborate structures than the glands which in
other cases cause a flash by discharging a luminous secretion into
the water. They are even more elaborate than the internal
permanent phosphorescent structure of the glow-worm (an insect,
not a crustacean), which has no condensing lens.
I have mentioned these phosphorescent organs of small and
smallest crustaceans because not many years ago a French
naturalist, my friend Professor Giard, found that many of the sand-
hoppers on the great sandy shore near Boulogne are
phosphorescent. A year or two later I found them myself on the
shore above tide-mark at Ouistreham (Westerham), near Caen,
where they had actually been mistaken for glow-worms! It was easy
at night to pick up a dozen phosphorescent sand-hoppers during a
stroll of five or ten minutes on the sands. Yet I have never seen
them nor heard of their being seen on the English coast, and one of
the results which I hope for in mentioning them here is that some of
my readers will discover them on British sands and let me know. The
remarkable fact about the luminous sand-hoppers is that they have
no apparatus for producing light, and, as a matter of fact, do not
produce it! Their luminosity is a disease, and is due (as was shown
by that much-beloved teacher and discoverer the late Professor
Giard) to the infection of their blood by a bacillus. Hence it is only
here and there that you see the brilliant greenish ball of light on the
sand due to a phosphorescent sand-hopper. And when you pick it up
you find that the poor little thing is quite feeble and unable to hop.
Examine its blood under the microscope and you find it teeming with
excessively minute parasitic rods like those which cause the
phosphorescence of dead fish, of stale bones, and occasionally of
butcher's meat. Similar bacilli may be obtained by cultivation from
any sea-water, and in such abundance that a room can be lit up by a
bottleful of the cultivation. Perhaps all the light-producing bacteria or
bacilli are only varieties of one species—perhaps they are distinct
species. Whether a species or a variety, that which gets into the
blood of the sand-hopper and gives it the luminosity of a glow-
worm, inevitably and rapidly causes its death—a severe price to pay
for brief nocturnal effulgence. Some of the germs can be removed
on a needle's point from the dead sand-hopper and introduced by
the most delicate puncture into a healthy sand-hopper or into a
young crab, with the result that they too become illuminated, the
bacillus multiplying within them. Being thus morbidly illuminated and
having astonished the crustacean, not to say the human world, by
their alarming brilliance, they quickly perish: a little history which
may be read as a parable. The sand-hoppers give the disease to one
another. It is, of course, a merely non-significant thing that the
bacillus happens to set up light vibrations. Its chemical activity is
concerned with its nourishment and growth, and in the course of
these processes it not only produces light but poisonous by-products
which kill its host. Some day we may get an "immune" race of sand-
hoppers who will acquire the illuminating bacillus and defy its
poison. Then we shall have a permanent and happy breed of brilliant
sand-hoppers illuminating the dark places of the seashore.
It is conceivable that some of the disease-producing bacilli (bacteria,
cocci, etc.) which multiply in man's blood and tissues should also
produce light vibrations, and if one could be found that would render
the blood luminous, whilst not producing much pain or malaise, no
doubt some excuse would be found for its use as a fashionable toilet
novelty. Cases are on record of luminosity of the surface of the body
and its secretions being developed during serious illness by human
beings, especially in acute phthisis; but these ancient records need
confirmation.
Luminous bacilli or bacteria only give out light when free oxygen is
in the water or liquid inhabited by them. A chemical combination of
the oxygen with substances in the bacteria is the necessary
condition of their evolution of light. When frozen, these bacteria
cease to be luminous—the chemical combination cannot take place
when the substance of the bacterium is frozen solid and maintained
in that condition; the liquid condition is a necessary condition for
these changes. These luminous bacteria have been used recently by
Sir James Dewar in the Faraday Laboratory of the Royal Institution
(where Sir James has shown them to me), for the purpose of
investigating the action of intense cold on living matter. Although
their luminous response to oxygen is arrested when they are frozen,
yet immediately on allowing the temperature to rise above freezing-
point the response of the living matter to oxidation recommences,
and a luminous glow is seen. Hence we have in this glow a ready
means of answering the question, "Does extreme cold, of long
duration, destroy the simplest living matter?" Sir James Dewar has
exposed a film of these bacteria to the extremest degree of cold as
yet obtained in the laboratory, that at which hydrogen gas is
solidified, and he has kept them in this, or nearly this, degree of cold
for several months. Yet immediately on "thawing" the luminous glow
was visible in the dark, showing that the bacteria were still alive.
Curiously enough, whilst all chemical action in living matter can be
thus arrested by extreme cold, and yet resumed on rise of
temperature and restoration to the liquid condition, so that the old
phrase and the conception of "suspended animation" are justified—
yet there is one widely-distributed form of activity, the effect of
which the bacteria, even when hard frozen, cannot resist, namely,
that of the blue and ultra-blue rays of light. These rays, if allowed to
fall on the hardest frozen bacillus, get at its chemical structure,
shake it to pieces, destroy it. Hence Sir James Dewar argues that,
whilst it would appear that the extreme cold of space would not kill
a minute living germ, and prevent it passing from planet to planet,
or from remotest space to our earth, yet one thing which is more
abundant in space than within the shell of our atmosphere is
absolutely destructive to such minute particles of living matter, even
when hard-frozen, and that is intense light, the ultra-visible
vibrations of smallest wave-length.

A dance on the seashore: a sketch by Edward Forbes (1852).

 CHAPTER XVIII

A SWISS INTERLUDE

A
FTER the hot summer of 1911 I escaped from London in September
and made straight for Interlaken. Thence I was "wafted" by the
electric railway to the "Schynige Platte"—a wonderful hill-side, 4500
feet above the "Bödeli," the flat meadowland in which Interlaken is
placed. At the Schynige Platte we are separated to the south from the
Jungfrau and the great Oberland range of mountains only by a deep
rift in which rushes the "Black Lütschine," coming down from
Grindelwald to join its "white" brother-torrent close beneath us at
Zweilütschinen. To reach the "Platte" we creep in our train up the
northern side of the mountain—one of whose peaks is known by the
curious name "Gummihorn"—for more than an hour without a
glimpse of what is on the other side. Then, when we are 6000 feet
above sea-level, we enter a short tunnel in the shoulder of the
mountain, and all is dark. When the train emerges every one in it
gasps. You hear a cry from every mouth—for the scene is astounding!
Coming through that tunnel we have stolen surreptitiously upon a
band of gigantic snow-white brethren—the Wetterhörner, the
Schreckhörner, the Eiger, the Mönch, the Jungfrau, the Mittaghorn,
the Breithorn, and the Tschingelhorn. There they are—lying close to
us, unaware of our approach—naked and unashamed, glistening in
the sunlight, variously stretched in their immense repose. One feels
on seeing them thus free from every scrap of cloud and clothing as
though one had intruded upon a glorious company of titanic beings
innocently sunning themselves in perfect nudity. It is with the sense
that humble apologies for the intrusion are due to them, and will be
graciously accepted because we hold them in such profound
admiration and reverence, that we venture, little by little, to let our
eyes dwell on their wondrous beauty. There are moments, it must be
confessed, when we feel a qualm of modesty and are unwilling to
take advantage of our rare chance—moments when we should not be
surprised if one of the giants were to hurl a command at us—in terms
of thunder and avalanche—ordering us at once to retire to the other
side of the Gummihorn and leave them to their rightful privacy. There
is no great view of snow mountains at close range—not even that
from the Gornergrat—which is at once so fine and so easily
accessible.
In the following year I went early in June in search of another Alpine
delight, the spring flowers—not those of the highest "downs" and
sheltering rocks 8000 or 9000 feet above sea-level, but those of the
higher meadows, where the pine forests are beginning to thin out,
and rich crops are cut before July by the skilful workers of the great
Swiss industry, that of cow-herding and the production of cheese. It
is difficult to define properly the term "Alpine" as applied to flowers.
It is now used by horticulturists very generally for those exquisite
small plants, the Saxifrages, Androsacæ, Gentians, etc., which grow
in the highest regions to which plant-life extends—regions which are
often covered by the winter's snow until June, and even late into that
month. Some of these plants (as, for instance, the Soldanellas—those
little lilac-coloured flowers like pendent foolscaps which are allied to
our primrose—and the crocus and the butterbur (Petasites)) actually
blossom beneath the snow and push their open flowers through it to
the sunlight. Others of these "higher Alpines" have a peculiar mode of
growth related to their special conditions of life. Their stems are very
short and their foliage closely set, so that they form compact tufts or
cushions, on which their short-stalked brilliant little flowers are
dotted. The fact is they have not time in the short summer of these
high regions to grow long stems. Their flowers are produced on low-
lying parts of the plant, which carry small and abundant green leaves,
but never send up long leaf-bearing stems. Not only do they thus do
quickly, and without needless upward growth, what they have to do—
namely, expose green leaves to the sunlight for nutrition and their
flowers to the fertilizing visits of insects so as to ripen their
reproductive seeds—but they benefit by keeping close to the warmth
of the ground, which is heated by the strong sunshine, and is three
and a half degrees higher in temperature than the cold moist air. In
similar positions in low-lying regions the difference between the
temperature of the air and that of the surface of the ground is not as
much as one degree.
The Alpine meadows do not occur above the height of 5000 to 6000
feet, and are bordered by pine woods, in which are many beautiful
plants not to be found at all or not in such profusion in the lower
valleys. Both the meadows and woods of the Alpine heights graduate
into those of lower level, and it is difficult to draw the line and say
these flowers should be, and these should not be, called "Alpines."
Many rock-loving plants allied to those found at great heights flourish
in comparatively low-lying regions, where the necessary rocky
character exists. The flowers of the high Alpine meadows are not the
rock-lovers, the inhabitants of a surface formed by fragments of
broken rock, to which the name "Alpine" is often limited. The
meadow plants grow on good soil, and cover whole acres, in which
there is but little grass. The fields are coloured of almost uniform blue
or white or purple or yellow as the weeks go on, and various species
one after another have their turn of dominance and maturity.
I paid, first of all, a brief visit to Aix and the lakes of Bourget and of
Annecy, to the gorge of the River Fier, and to the finely-situated
monastery of the Grande Chartreuse—a huge building, devoid of
beauty, which it seems to be difficult to utilize now that the
Carthusian Brothers have been expelled. The richly-coloured Alpine
centaury, deep blue and purple red, was growing in the woods
around it abundantly, and many other handsome plants. Zoology was
represented by most excellent little trout provided for us at the village
inn. Then I stayed a couple of days at Geneva, where, in a pool in a
richly-planted rock garden—that of the well-known horticulturist M.
Correvon—I came across what I have long wished to see, namely, the
blue variety of the edible frog. Six years ago I wrote an account of
the little blue frog of Mentone, the rare variety of the green tree-frog,
or rainette, so abundant in that region (see "Science from an Easy
Chair," p. 50: Methuen, 1910). The edible frog (Rana esculenta) is
often very beautifully coloured with blotches of dark brown and pale
green, and a pale yellow stripe down the back. It is easily
distinguished from the brown frog (Rana temporaria), which occurs
with it. The latter is the common frog of our islands, though we also
find the edible frog in the South of England. The blue variety of the
edible frog has been seen in various localities in Germany and along
the valley of the Rhone. It owes its colour, as does the blue tree-frog,
to the suppression of yellow pigment in its skin. The one I found was
swimming in a small clear pool with two other very finely-marked
specimens of the more usual colouring. A blue variety of our common
brown frog has not been observed, although it is occasionally very
pale in colour and, on the other hand, is sometimes of a bright
orange-brown tint. Several species of toads and frogs are found on
the Continent which do not occur in Great Britain.
Years ago (when France and Germany began the great war of 1869-
70) I travelled from Geneva to Chamonix by coach. It took the whole
day. Now I and my companion, avoiding the railway, were driven in a
motor-car past Bonneville, Cluses, and Sallanches (with its famous
view of Mont Blanc), and along the vale of Chamonix to its far end
above Argentière in less than three hours. Here we stayed a few days
in the Hôtel du Planet, at a height of 4500 feet, in order to enjoy the
sight of the meadows and woodland flowers. I may add that in this
quiet hotel the proprietor gave us simple, good food, well cooked,
which is more than I can say of the large hotels on the lakes and
popular resorts, such as Geneva, Montreux, Glion, and Interlaken,
where I have carefully inquired into the kitchen arrangements and
food supplies. The latter barrack-like edifices have of late years
become intolerable owing to the mechanical supply to them (by a
group of monopolist financiers who have acquired the contract) of the
nastiest ice-stored fish, meat, and vegetables. These are heated in
their kitchens with bottled sauces in patent ovens by underpaid
scullery-helps, without the superintendence of a qualified "cook." The
result is a sham—pretentious and inedible—which yields a fine profit
to the hotel companies, and is erroneously believed by the travelling
crowds of to-day to be French cookery! In reality it is a new device
for bringing the "catering" in all hotels in the great holiday centres
under a monopolist control. The scheme is similar to that to which
the continental railway companies have yielded in leasing to a well-
known company the restaurant and sleeping arrangements on their
trains, with the result of causing much misery to travellers and profit
to themselves and to the monopolists.
Owing to differences in exposure and soil, the meadowland above
Argentière showed a fascinating variety of colour. Here was an acre of
the large-flowered purple geranium, interspersed with the big Alpine
yellow rattle (a greedy root-parasite); there (near some pine trees) a
mass of the yellow anemone (Anemone sulfurea); farther on a whole
meadow, blue with the abundance of large hairbells and viper's
bugloss. Close by, in the damper parts of the valley descending from
the Col des Montets, three or four acres of meadowland were white,
so thickly were they covered with tall plants of the distinguished-
looking white buttercup (Ranunculus aconitifolius). In some parts,
among these dignified Ranunculi, the plump yellow heads of the
globe-flower (Trollius), also a kind of buttercup, were abundant.
Overshadowed by these larger plants, or growing up between them,
were orchids, plantains, polygonums, and many others. The most
beautiful plant in these meadows was St. Bruno's lily, which we found
in abundance on a steep bank. It is named after the founder of the
Carthusian order, whose monastery (the Grande Chartreuse), first
established when William the Conqueror ruled England, I had visited
a week before. St. Bruno's lily has large, white, funnel-shaped
flowers, an inch or more long, three or four on a stalk. It is known to
botanists by the pretty name "Paradisia liliastrum." It is the lily of the
Alps, pure and unspotted, with a delicious perfume, and six golden
stamens guarded by its beautiful and large white corolla. In the
woods we found some of the larger orchids, and also whole banks
covered with the waxy-looking flowers, variegated in colour, white,
yellow, and red, of the large millwort, the Polygala chamæbuxus—a
plant very unlike in appearance to the little blue and white milkworts
of England. It flowers in winter as well as through the early summer.
Another wonderfully waxy-looking flower which we found is that of
the shrub known as the Alpine Daphne. There is something
suggestive of exotic rarity and perfume about a waxy-looking flower.
Of the same character are the flowers of the little shrubs of the genus
Vaccinium known as the bilberry, the wortleberry, the cow-berry, and
the bear-berry, which occur on the open scrubland. The rusty-leaved
Rhododendron, with its crimson flowers, and the little Azalea (like the
Vaccinia—all members of the Heath family) were abundant—as well
as the true dark-red rose of the Alps, the richly-scented Rosa alpina.
We left Argentière and the constant companionship of the great
glaciers of the vale of Chamonix, and descended by train through the
awe-inspiring valley of the Trient (up which we used to walk many
years ago, on our way to the higher regions) to Martigny, and then
drove for four hours up a rough mountain road to the hotel of Pierre-
à-voir—whence we descended a few days later in sledges, over grass
slopes and torrent beds, 4000 feet in an hour and a quarter, to Saxon
in the Rhone valley, a truly alarming experience. The "luge" or sledge
is supported in front by a strong mountaineer who prevents it from
"hurtling" down at breakneck speed, topsy-turvy. As the avoidance of
such a catastrophe depends on the strength and the sureness of foot
of this individual, travelling by "luges" is not to be recommended in
summer, however agreeable it may be when the mountain side is
covered with snow. In the woods near Pierre-à-voir we found another
member of the Heath family, looking like a lily rather than a heath,
the sweet-scented winter-green with its large single white flower
(Pirola uniflora), and on the rocks on open ground masses of the pink
flowers of the little rock soap-wort (Saponaria ocymoides). The
curious tall, big-leaved composite with only three purple florets to a
head, the Adenostyles albifrons, was here much in evidence. We were
too early for the flowers of the pretty little creeping plant allied to the
honeysuckle which the great Linnæus asked his friend Gronovius to
name after him, the Linnæa borealis, though we had been told that it
grows in this neighbourhood.
Then we spent five days at Glion and on the incomparable Lake of
Geneva, never wearied of gazing at the changing mysterious lights
and colours (sapphire, emerald, and silver) of its vast and restful
expanse.
The question often is asked, "Why is it that the same species of
flower is brighter and stronger in colour when growing high up in the
Alps than when growing in the lowlands and in our own country?"
The fact is admitted; the blues of the blue-bells (Campanula), the
bugloss, the forget-me-nots, the crimsons and purples of the
geraniums and the pinks and the campions, and many others, are
examples. Careful study and consideration of the facts have enabled
botanists to show, in many instances, within recent years, that the
peculiarities of form and also of colour of the stems, leaves, and
flowers of plants are not mere unmeaning "accidents," but are
definitely of advantage and of "survival value" to the species. Thus
we have seen that the tuft-like cushions formed by high Alpine plants
are explained. The purple and reddish colour of stalks and leaves like
that of the red variety of the common beech has not always, as in
that plant, the purpose of protecting the chlorophyll from destruction
by too vivid sunlight. In Alpine plants it is often present on the
underside of leaves and of the petals, and acts to the plant's benefit,
absorbing light and converting it into heat. But it also seems in many
cases to protect the juices of the plant from the destructive action of
white light.
It is held by some botanists that the bright colour of Alpine (and
Norwegian) samples of a flower elsewhere of a paler colour is due to
the direct action of the greater sunlight of the high regions in causing
the formation of pigment. This is inadmissible. The sunlight cannot
act in that way. It causes increased formation of nutriment by acting
on the chlorophyll, and an Alpine plant thus highly charged with
nutritive matters can afford to form more abundant pigment than a
plant which enjoys less brilliant sunshine. The high-coloured Alpine
flowers are a breed or race; a pale-coloured plant taken to the Alps
from below does not itself become high coloured. It is a matter of
natural selection. The occasional high-coloured "spontaneous"
variations produced from seed have an advantage in the short
summer of the high Alps. They attract the visits of the few insects in
the short season more surely than do the paler individuals, and
consequently they are fertilized and reproduce, whilst the race of the
paler individuals dies out from failure to attract the insects. Thus we
get a high-coloured race established in the mountains, a race that
can make haste and seize the brief opportunities of the short but
brilliant summer. There are many peculiarities of form and colour of
plants the life conditions of which are diverse (e.g., woodland,
moorland, aquatic, seashore, dry air, moist air, etc.), which can be
shown by accurate observation to be specially related to those life
conditions. Those conditions allow the peculiarities to survive and
establish a race, in some cases a species, whilst preventing the
maturity or destroying the life of those individuals not presenting that
advantageous peculiarity of variation.
 CHAPTER XIX

SCIENCE AND DANCING

T
HERE is at the present day in this country a real and most happy
revival of interest in the great art of dancing as exhibited on the
stage. We owe this to the creative ability of the musical composers
and directors of the Russian Imperial Ballet, as well as to the highly-
trained and gifted Russian artists who have visited this country, and
especially to the poetical genius of Madame Anna Pavlova. Though
dancing may seem, on first thought, a subject remote from science,
yet, like all other human developments, it is a matter for scientific
investigation, and one upon which science can throw much light.
What is the origin and essential nature of "dancing"? Do animals
dance? What is its early history in mankind? What is its relation not
merely historically, but from the point of view of psychology—the
study of the mind—to other arts? What is its real "value" and
possible achievement?
To dance is to trip with measured steps, and, whilst primarily
referring to human movement, the word is secondarily applied to
rapid rhythmic movements even of inanimate objects. Rhythm is
what distinguishes dancing from ordinary movement of progression
or from simple gesture or mere antics. Dancing on the part of man
or animal implies a sense of rhythm. Though not common amongst
animals, it is exhibited by many birds, by spiders, and by some
crustaceans! Rhythm is an essential feature of the sequence of
sounds which we call "music." The singing of birds is related to their
perception of and pleasure in rhythm, and it is not, therefore,
surprising that they should also dance. It is, however, curious that
the birds which "dance" are not the "singing birds," and that there
are many birds which neither sing nor dance. The dancing of birds is
usually part of the "display" of the males for the purpose of
attracting the females at the breeding season. It is well known in
some African cranes, as well as in rails and other similar birds, and
may be witnessed at the Zoological Gardens in London. Other birds
"strut" rather than dance, whilst displaying their plumage, as, for
instance, the turkey and pheasant tribe and the bustards. Parrots
and cockatoos will often make a rhythmical up-and-down movement
of the neck in time to music, but usually the "dance" is the
accompaniment of definite emotion. The male spider of some
species courts the female by making dancing movements and posing
itself in a very curious way, so as to display a spot of bright colour
on the head to her observation. The same kind of movement and
action has been observed in marine shrimp-like creatures. Some
spiders are excited and made to dance by the vibrating note of a
tuning-fork set going near them. I once had the chance to observe a
male octopus in the aquarium at Naples, who was displaying himself
to the female, changing colour rapidly from one shade to another,
and rolling his long sucker-bearing arms in the form of spirals.
Probably one should not consider this as a "dance," since no
rhythmic interruption or succession of movements was observable.
It is established that in mankind, as well as many animals, when in a
state of emotion, movement and gesture, as well as the vocal
utterance, take on a rhythmic character, that is to say, become a
dance and a song. The emotion is not necessarily that of amorous
passion; in mankind it is frequently of a warlike or religious
character, and is worked up by the sympathy, imitativeness, and
desire for unison in expression which is common in troops or large
gatherings of animals of social habits. Man presents a more
advanced development in variety, sensitiveness, and abandonment
to social or combined action and expression than do other animals,
and this is equally true of the more civilized and of the more
barbarous races. Apparently in obedience to the same tendencies as
those which convert simple forms of movement into a rhythmic
dance, the speech of man, under conditions of emotion, assumes a
rhythmic form, so that dancing bears the same relation to the
ordinary movements of locomotion and gesture which verse does to
ordinary speech, or, again, which song bears to mere exclamations
and cries, indicative of feeling. Dancing is the universal and most
primitive expression of that sense of rhythm which is a widely
distributed attribute of the nervous system in animals generally. In
primitive men it is a simple but often very violent demonstration of
strong emotion, such as social joy, religious exaltation, martial
ardour, or amatory passion. The voice and the facial muscles, as well
as those of the limbs and body, are affected, and the dancers derive
an intense pleasure from the excitement, which so far from
exhausting them leads them on to more and more violent rhythmic
or undulatory action. In its purest form this ecstatic condition is seen
in the spinning dervishes. It was developed into the mad and
dangerous festivals of the worshippers of Bacchus and other deities
in ancient Greece. It has been seen in mediaeval Europe as the
dancing mania and tarantism. The liability to this and similar forms
of "mania" lurks beneath the surface among populations which are
nevertheless staid and phlegmatic in their usual behaviour. The
Romans in ancient times recognized its unhealthy character, and
though fond of ceremonial dances and theatrical shows, and even of
the performances of dancing girls from Greece and the East,
disapproved of dancing on the part of a Roman citizen. Cicero says,
"As a rule no one, who is not drunk, dances—unless he is,
temporarily, out of his mind."
Although the mad performances of bacchanalians and dervishes are
recognized as unhealthy, civilized peoples in Europe since the
fifteenth century have developed and practised dancing as an art in
two directions—first, as a popular amusement in which definite
combinations of graceful movements are performed for the sake of
the pleasure which the exercise affords to the dancer and to the
spectator, and secondly, as carefully trained movements which are
meant by the dancer vividly to represent the actions and passions of
other people, and are exhibited by specially skilled performers on a
stage. The first kind is what we call "country dances," "popular
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