26. (ii)(b) Vir gravis et corpulentis

I hope that readers can forgive the discursive wandering from the subject that encyclopedia-browsing inevitably leads to. In writing about the Beijing Olympics I seem to have lost myself on the ever-appealing subject of the conquering Mongols, which I hope may in part be excused by the fact that that city first became capital of all China under the rule of Genghis' grandson Khubilai, he of Coleridge's opium-dreamt pleasure dome renown.

Colonel Sir Henry Yule's preface to the CHINA article (looked at last week) makes mention of one of the first known western visitors to the Orient, the Franciscan friar Johannes de Plano Carpini. Carpini, who merits his own entry (also penned by the colonel) in the same volume of EB9, made a remarkable journey in the middle of the 13th century from Lyons, France, to the court of the Khaan at Karakoram, in the heart of Mongolia.

In 1241 Mongolian troops scored an alarming victory at Liegnitz which "threatened to cast European Christendom beneath the feet of the barbarous hordes." In fact, the death of Genghis' son Ogudei and dispute over the succession meant that Mongolian interest turned away from further conquest into Europe. "The dread of the Tartars was, however, still on men's mind four years later , when Pope Innocent IV. determined (1245) on sending a mission to the Tartar and other Asiatic princes, the real object of which apparently was to gain trustworthy information regarding the hordes and their purposes."

The 65 year old Carpini, who had been a companion and disciple of Francis of Assisi, was chosen as the Pope's envoy. The delegation left Lyons on Easter Day 1245 (16th April), made a brief visit to seek "the counsel of an old friend, Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia," and from Kiev crossed into Mongol territory, to be escorted to the camp of Batu, the "senior of the Chingizid family."

Here the envoys with their presents had to pass between two fires before being presented to the prince. Batu ordered them to proceed onwards to the court of the supreme Kaan in Mongolia, and on Easter Day once more (April 8 1246) they started on the second and most formidable part of their journey - "so ill," writes the legate, "that we could scarcely sit a horse ; and throughout all that Lent our food had been nought but millet with salt and water, and with only snow melted in a kettle for drink." Their bodies were tightly bandaged [ie, Mongolian-fashion] to enable them to endure the excessive fatigue of this enormous ride [...] till, on the Feast of St Mary Magdalene (22d July), at last they reached the imperial camp called Sira Ordu (Yellow Pavilion), near the Orkhon River, - this stout-hearted old man having thus ridden something like 3000 miles in 106 days.

Carpini and his companions were to witness the Kurultai or formal election by tribal consent of the new Khaan Kuyuk, where "3000 to 4000 envoys and deputies from all parts of Asia and Eastern Europe, [bore] homage, tribute, and presents." After the enthronement of Kuyuk, the Pope's envoy was presented to the Khaan.

It was not till November that they got their dismissal, bearing a letter to the Pope in Mongol, Arabic, and Latin, which was little else than a brief imperious assertion of the Kaan's office as the scourge of God. Then commenced their long winter journey homeward[.]

Carpini was able to present the Khaan's letter to the Pope, and his report on the extent of the Mongol empire, still at Lyon, at the end of 1247. He was rewarded with the archbishopric of Antivari in Dalmatia, and at a date shortly after unrecorded by history, died.

Carpini left two documents of his observations on the Mongols, the Liber Tartarorum and the Historia Mongalorum quos nos Tartaros appellamus (ie, the "History of the Mongols whom we call the Tartars"), the first reliable European accounts of the Mongol people and empire. His great journey into the East and back is all the more remarkable, as Sir Henry observes, as

John of Pian del Carpine was not only an old man when he went cheerfully upon this mission, but was, as we know from accidental evidence in the annals of his order, a fat and heavy man (vir gravis et corpulentus), insomuch that during his preachings in Germany he was fain, contrary to Franciscan precedent, to ride a Donkey.

While the world watches Beijing in adoration of today's majestic Olympians, let us not forget the achievements of fat and heavy old men.

26. (ii)The accidents of war, commerce and opportunity

Professor R. K. Douglas' comprehensive study CHINA is prefaced by an account of how China became known to the Western world, written by Colonel Sir Henry Yule, R.E., K.C.S.I., C.B. It is an interesting opening, not least because, contrary to prejudices one might have expected in a 19th century writer, the emphasis is not upon Marco Polo or other 'discoverers' of the East, but on Genghis and sons, who brought the Orient west. In this opening, amongst a great wealth of other material which deserves revisiting, Sir Henry makes a very effective summary of the significance of the Mongol conquest in the wider historical perspective. Should any high school plagiarists have been set homework to "Explain the significance of the Mongol conquest in the wider historical perspective in 200 words or less" then I hope that the following proves of service. For extra credit, change the spelling 'Jenghiz' to 'Chinggis.'

"The name [Cathay] first became known to Europe in the 13th century, when the vast conquests of Jenghiz and his house drew a new and vivid attention to Asia. [...]

The conquests of Jenghiz and his successors had spread not only over China and, as it seemed the adjoining East, but westward also over all Northern Asia, Persia, Armenia, part of Asia Minor, and Russia, threatening to deluge Christendom. Though the Mongol wave retired, as it seemed almost by an immediate act of Providence, when Europe lay at its feet, it had levelled or covered all political barriers from the frontier of Poland to the Yellow Sea, and when Western Europe recovered from its alarm, Asia lay open, as never before or since, to the inspection of Christendom. Princes, envoys, priests, - half-missionary half-envoy - visited the court of the great Khan in Mongolia ; and besides these, the accidents of war, commerce, or opportunity carried a variety of persons from various classes of human life into the depths of Asia."

[EDIT : correction to the accreditation of the above article extract thanks to the vigilant sages at www.1902encyclopedia.com]

26. i) Where the roses have no fragrance, and the women no petticoats

Admirable efforts to strand for bland even-handedness in the BBC's relentless coverage of Beijing's International Sporting Jamboree.

"Is there an atmosphere of genuine celebration, or is it more forced?" the host of Radio 4's Today programme asked a roving sports correspondent. I can't recall the wording of the response to the question, but non-committal would cover it.

Would the forecast rain dampen spirits in the upcoming festivities? "It's not in the Chinese character to show disappointment."

Far be it from me to suggest that these observations tend towards portraying a national character somewhat... lacking scrutability.

From CHINA by R. K. Douglas, Professor of Chinese, King's College, London :

"Turning to the every-day customs and manners of the Chinese, it is passing strange to find how diametrically opposed they are to what we are familiar with. In a country "where," as has been said by Wingrove Cook, "the roses have no fragrance, and the women no petticoats ; where the labourer has no Sabbath, and the magistrate no sense of honour ; where the needle points to the south, and the sign of being puzzled is to scratch the antipodes of the head; where the place of honour is on the left hand, and the seat of intellect is in the stomach ; where to take off your hat is an insolent gesture, and to wear white garments is to put yourself in mourning," it would at first sight seem useless to seek for any point of similarity with ourselves. But it is extremely probable, for instance, that the choice of the left as the seat of honour is in principle entirely at one with our custom of considering the right hand as the place due to the most highly-honoured guest, and that both are survivals of the ancient and almost universal adoration of the sun.[Here follows a laborious proof of this hypothesis : on your behalf I am going to take the professor's assertions on faith] In daily life the Chinese are frugal, sober, and industrious."

More 19th century British opinion on China soon.

25. Famed, honoured, and ultimately devoured

It is that magical time again, when around the globe the human race are united by staring at television sets for hours on end, as burly young men and women clad in lycra hop from foot to foot and compete earnestly in obscure athletic challenges, hoping to win the praise and adulation of their countrymen, before suffering their scowls and approbation once they fail a test for performance-enhancing chemicals. A fitting time for us to consider the fabulous career and unfortunate demise of one of the first great Olympians.

"MILO, one of the most famous athletes of Greece, whose name became proverbial for personal strength. He lived about the end of the 6th century B.C., was six times crowned at the Olympic games and six times at the Pythian for wrestling, and was famous throughout the civilized world for his feats of strength, such as carrying an ox on his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia. In his native city of Crotona he was much honoured, and he commanded the army which defeated the people of Sybaris in 511 B.C. When Democedes, the physician of Darius, deserted the Persian service, he sent a boastful message to the king of Persia informing him of his marriage to the daughter of Milo. The traditional account of his death is often used to point a moral : he found a tree which some woodcutters had partially split with a wedge, and attempted to render it asunder, but the wedge fell out, and the tree closed on his hand, imprisoning him till wolves came and devoured him."

24. Mysterizingness in the Limbo of Effete Heresies

"PHRENOLOGY. The name was given by Forster in 1815 to the empirical system of psychology formulated by Gall and developed by his followers, especially by Spurzheim and Combe. At first it was named "cranioscopy," "craniology," "physiognomy," or "zoonomy," but Forster's name was early adopted by Spurtzheim, and became that whereby the system is now known. The principles upon which it is based are four : (1) the brain is the organ of the mind ; (2) the mental powers of man can be analysed into a definite number of independent faculties ; (3) these faculties are innate, and each has its seat in a definite region of the brain ; (4) the size of each of these regions is the measure of the power of manifesting the faculty associated with it. While phrenology is thus, on the one hand, a system of mental philosophy, it has a second and more popular aspect as a method whereby the disposition and character of the individual may be ascertained. These two sides of the subject are distinct from each other, for, while it can only serve as a reliable guide for reading character on the assumption of its truth as a philosophic system, yet the possibility of its practical application does not necessarily follow from the establishment of the truth of its theoretic side."

The author of this essay, A. Macalister, M. D., Professor of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, is necessarily careful in his introduction of this subject. It is worth considering that while today we can easily dismiss Phrenology as an amusing, faith-based pseudo-science, in the 19th Century, however flawed the scientific method , the products of the subject were worth considering, in the absence of more rigorously achieved data.

Macalister gives us the history of the subject - from the work of early Greeks and Egyptians, through Albertus Magnus to Theodore Gall, and the heyday of Phrenology as a respected scientific philosophy in the early 19th Century.

"The popularity of phrenology has waned, and few of the phrenological societies now survive ; the cultivation of the system is confined to a few enthusiasts such as will be found attached to any cause, and some professional teachers who follow phrenology as a vocation. Like many similar systems, it has a much larger following in America than in Europe. Based, like many other artificial philosophies, on an admixture of assumption and truth, certain parts will survive and become incorporated into scientific psychology, while the rest will in due course come to be relegated to the limbo of effete heresies.

The faculties and their Localities.- The system of Gall was constructed by a method of pure empiricism, and his so-called organs were for the most part identified on slender grounds. Having selected the place of a faculty, he examined the heads of his friends and casts of persons with that peculiarity in common, and in them he sought for the distinctive feature of their characteristic trait. Some of his earlier studies were made among low associates, in jails, and in lunatic asylums, and some of the qualities located by him were such as tend to become perverted to crime. These he named after their excessive manifestations, mapping out organs of murder, theft, &c. ; but as this cast some discredit on the system the names were changed by Spurzheim, who claimed as his the moral and religious considerations associated with it."

Doctor Macalister proceeds admirably by cataloguing all thirty five propensities, sentiments and faculties of the system of Spurzheim and Combe. A selection follow :

Propensities
[...](3) Concentrativeness, below the obelion and over the lambda. This is a region of uncertain function, unnoticed by Gall, but described as Inhabitiveness by Spurzheim, because he found it large in cats and in a clergyman fond of his home. [...]
(4) Adhesiveness (Amitie), over the lateral convoluted area of the lambdoidal suture. This region was prominent in a lady introduced to Gall as a model of friendship, and is said by him to be the region where persons close to each other put their heads together.
(5) Combativeness (Instinct de la defense), above the asterion ; it was found by Gall by examining the heads of the most quarrelsome of his low companions whom he had beforehand stimulated by alcohol. It was verified by comparing this region with the same part of the head of a quarrelsome young lady."

Now that is what I call a scientific study : administering alcohol to low companions, measuring their heads, then measuring that of a quarrelsome young lady for confirmation.

"(6) Destructiveness (Instinct carnassier), above the ear meatus. This is the widest part of the skulls of carnivorous animals, and was found large in the head of a student so fond of torturing animals that he became a surgeon, also large in the head of an apothecary who became an executioner.
[...](8) Acquisitiveness (Sentiment de la propriete), on the upper edge of the front half of the squamous suture. This part of the head Gall noticed to be prominent in the pickpockets of his acquaintance.
(9) Constructiveness (Sens de mechanique), on the stephanion ; detected by its prominence on the heads of persons of mechanical genius. It was found large on the head of a milliner of uncommon taste and on a skull reputed to be that of Raphael. [...]

Lower Sentiments
(10) Self-esteem (Orgueil, Fierte), at and immediately over the obelion ; found by Gall in a beggar who excused his poverty on account of his pride. This was confirmed by the observation that proud persons held their heads backwards in the line of the organ. [...]

Superior Sentiments
[...](14) Veneration (Sentiment religieux), median at the bregma. Gall noted when visiting churches that those who prayed with the greatest fervour were prominent in this region, and it was also prominent in a pious brother."

I wonder if there's any possibility that Gall made up these observations, off the top of his head, as it were.

"(15) Conscientiousness, unknown to Gall ; recognized by Spurzheim usually from its deficiency, and placed between the last and the parietal eminence.
[...](18) Wonder, said to be large in vision-seers and many psychic researchers. A second similar organ, placed between this and the next is called Mysterizingness by Forster, and is said to preside over belief in ghosts and the supernatural.
(19) Ideality (Poesie), noted by Gallfrom its prominence in the busts of poets ; said to be the part touched by the hand when composing poetry.
(20) Wit (Esprit caustique), the frontal eminence, the organ of the sense of the ludicrous, prominent in Rabelais and Swift. [...]

Perceptive Faculties
(22) Individuality, over the frontal sinus in the middle line ; the capacity of recognizing external objects and forming ideas therefrom ; said to have been large in Michelangelo, and small in the Scots.
(23) Form (Memoire des personnes), capacity for recognizing faces ; gives a wide interval between the eyes ; found by Gall in a squinting girl with a good memory for faces. [...]
(28) Number, on the external angular process of the frontal bone, large in a calculating boy in Vienna.
(29) Order, internal to the last, first noted by Spurzheim in an orderly idiot. [...]

Reflective Faculties
(34) Comparison (Sagacite comparative), median, at the top of the bare region of the forehead, where a savant friend of Gall's, fond of analogies, had a promonent boss."

And finally

"(35) Causality (Esprit metaphysique), the eminence on each side of Comparison, noticed on the head of Fichte and on a bust of Kant ; the seat of the faculty of correlating causes and effects."

Which one cannot help but imagine to have been somewhat lacking on the bonces of Messrs Gall, Spurzheim, and company.

You can enjoy the rest of Doctor Macalisters slightly sarcastic presentation of this entertaining pseudo-science in the full PHRENOLOGY posting at the 1902 Encyclopedia website. The term 'mysterizingness' seems not to have achieved wider currency in the last few hundred years, returning only 22 hits at present from the Google. Accordingianists might see it as their duty to remedy this situation, perhaps by leaving snide comments on the web forums of modern-day phrenology enthusiasts. Eg : "Your propensity to mysterizingness will leave you stranded in the limbo of effete heresies."

The Phrenology article in the current edition of Britannica is clearly a summary based on Doctor Macalister's 9th Edition article, which strikes a pleasing note of continuity across 130 years.

23 (iii) Modesty, thy name is Professor J. B. Pettigrew

"To Professor J. Bell Pettigrew is due the merit of having first satisfactorily analysed [wing] movements, and of having reproduced them by the aid of artificial wings. This physiologist in 1867 showed that all natural wings, whether of the insect, bat, or bird, are screws structurally, and that they act as screws when they are made to vibrate, from the fact that they twist in opposite directions during the down and up strokes. He also explained that all wings act upon a common principle, and that they present oblique, kite-like surfaces to the air, through which they pass much in the same way that an oar passes through water in sculling. He further pointed out that the wings of flying creatures (contrary to received opinions, and as has been already indicated) strike downwards and forwards during the down strokes, and upwards and forwards during the up strokes. Lastly, and most important of all, he demonstrated that the wings of flying creatures, when the bodies of said creatures are fixed, describe figure-of-8 tracks in space, - the figure-of-8 tracks, when the bodies are released and advancing as in rapid flight, being opened out and converted into waved tracks.

Professor Pettigrew's discovery of the figure-of-8 and waved movements, concerning which so much has been said and written, was confirmed some two years after it was made by Professor E. J. Marey by the aid of the "sphygmograph."

from FLIGHT, FLYING MACHINES in volume 9 of the Ninth Edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Author : Professor J. B. Pettigrew. Including credits to illustrations and tables, I count no fewer than 45 named citations of the illustrious academic, which must surely be some kind of record.

It is a great shame that for all the time and energy the professor invested in the study of flapping, not a single flying machine following that model has ever sustained flight. Perhaps surprisingly, J. B. P. was not entirely blinkered in his view of the problem of flight, and although containing a great deal on the subject of flapping, his article does eventually move into other areas.

"In flight, one of two things is necessary. Either the wings must attack the air with great violence, or the air in rapid motion must attack the wings : either suffices. [...] The flight of the albatross supplies the necessary illustration. If by chance this magnificent bird alights upon the sea he must flap and beat the water and air with his wings with tremendous energy until he gets fairly launched. This done he extends his enormous pinions and sails majestically along, seldom deigning to flap his wings, the breeze works for him."

The article continues at length, describing with enthusiasm projected and attempted models, in many (but not all) of which some kind of flapping motion is a key feature. It would be far fairer to Professor Pettigrew to reproduce his text in full : however fairness is not my object at this time, so we will finish with the professor's final, patriotic words, and do our best to forget two bicycle-salesmen brothers from Ohio.

"The unremitting efforts of Mr Moy and other British engineers to construct flying machines deserve well of science. They are significant as showing that the great subject of aerial navigation is at length receiving a fair share of the thought and energy of a country which has already produced the locomotive engine, and which, there is good reason to believe, is destined also to produce the flying machine."

[You can now enjoy the article FLIGHT, FLYING MACHINES in full at the 1902 Encyclopedia, complete with all illustrations.]

23 (ii) A physical problem to be solved by mechanical skill and ingenuity

"FLIGHT, FLYING MACHINES. Of the many scientific problems of modern times, there are few possessing a wider or more enduring interest than that of aerial navigation. To fly has always been an object of ambition with man ; nor will this occasion surprise when we remember the marvellous freedom enjoyed by volant as compared with non-volant animals. The traditions of Daedalus and Icarus illustrate the attempts in the past ; and at the present day societies exist in Britain, France, Austria, and other countries, for the purpose of solving, if possible, the knotty problem. These societies embrace men of the highest scientific attainments, and as they evince great activity, and publish their proceedings at regular intervals, it is not too much to expect that the problem of artificial flight will be actually solved, or at least much simplified. For the first time in the history of the world, the subject of aerial navigation has been taken up in earnest by practical men with the necessary degree of preliminary knowledge and training. Investigators no longer dream about flight : they experiment upon and work towards it. It is, they maintain, a physical problem to be solved by mechanical skill and ingenuity. But while writing thus hopefully, it is necessary to state that as yet no one has succeeded in constructing a fully equipped flying machine. The number of successful flying models, however, is so considerable as to inspire the cultivators of aeronautical science with a very confident hope of success."

So begins Professor J. B. Pettigrew's delightful and compelling essay, a companion to AERONAUTICS in EB9's first volume, available for your perusal at our old friend 1902encyclopedia.com . [As is FLIGHT, FLYING MACHINES in full now, complete with the illustrations in their original, undistorted context]. The thrill and excitement of man's incipient conquest of the air hums from the very pages. There are many charmingly potty allusions and speculations, but the writing is clear and informative, and conveys to the reader a great and insight and appreciation of the particular problem.

"The subject of aerostation is admitted on all hands to be one of extreme difficulty. To tread upon the air (and this is what is really meant) is, at first sight, in the highest degree utopian ; and yet there are thousands of living creatures which actually accomplish this feat. These creatures, however varied in form and structure, all fly according to one and the same principle ; and this is a significant fact, as it tends to show that the air must be attacked in a particular way to ensure flight. The flying machine of the future, there can be no doubt, will be constructed on the type of flying animals, - the insect, bird and bat. It behoves us then at the outset to scrutinise very carefully the general configuration of flying animals, and in particular the size, shape and movements of thei flying organs.

Flying animals, it may be premised, differ entirely from sailing ships and from balloons, with which they are not unfrequently though erroneously compared ; and a flying machine constructed upon proper principles can have nothing in common with either of those creations."

It would no doubt be of satisfaction to the professor to learn that in the 21st century, comparisons between flying creatures and boats and balloons are now happily unfrequent.

There follows a discussion of the similarities and differences between those creatures and objects which move through water and through the air. Professor Pettigrew is contemptuous in his dismissal of the balloon, inferior to both the ship and the true flying machine in its inability to steer : it is a "mere lifting machine." His assertion that the "force required to propel a balloon against even a moderate breeze would result in its destruction" would of course later be disproved by the invention of the airship ; it is difficult to dismiss the notion that the spectacular demise of that particular form of aerial navigation would have caused the professor no small degree of schadenfreude.

Balloons operate by being being lighter than the air and so rising, passively - but weight and power are discovered to be the secret of the true flying machine, which

"need not necessarily be a light, airy structure exposing an immoderate amount of surface. [...] It should attack and subdue the air, and never give the air an opportunity of attacking and subduing it. It should smite the air intelligently and as a master, and its vigorous well-directed thrusts should in every instance elicit an upward and forward recoil. The flying machine of the future, there is reason to believe, will be a veritable example of "multum in parvo." It will launch itself in the ocean of air, and will extract from that air, by means of its travelling surfaces - however fashioned and however applied - the recoil or resistance necessary to elevate and carry it forward."

Rousing stuff, professor!

Next : more.