Reprinted with permission from Jd66envocb. J. k-is card -%.. I‘4:53-9. Summer i 985 Copy@i i983. Sot@.

THE DEBT OF HUMOUR IN SCIENCE TO LEWIS CARROLL by Rudolf Schmid

Lewis Carroll’s three most popular books, BoOjtnns and marks as inspirational for= have ’s Adventures in Wonder fond, Through the been significant in physics, psychology, mokcula.r Looking-Gkm, and lhe Hunting of the Srrark, firstbiology, and botany, ad have afsa figured in tw- published in, respectively, 1865, 1871, and tanicqmmmar. Recent cktirrrs of the first appear- 1876]-3 have inspired numerous works of hu- ance of the term ‘boojum’ by physicists (Mer- mour in science. The examples mentioned below rnin, 10; Waldrop, 11), psychologists (Beach, I‘2; are probably just the tip of the CarroUian iceberg. Lau and Dember, tq), and possibly DNA cloners Some of these works seem important derivatives (Anon 14; this appears to have ordy a cute title— of Carrolliana and are obscure and largely un- scz Seftrnid, Is: Part 19—involving ‘boojum’) are known to Carrollogists. For example, I have seen long predated by botanical usage as the common Clarld cited onky twice (Heath,5 Montgomery.G name for Idn’a columnan”s, the Baja boojum Afas HeatIr,7 does not discuss Clark’s work) in (a.k.a. cirio) invented in 1922 by Godfrey Sykes thk journal and not at all in Knight Lerrer.’ 7he (Gardner, in CarroU,s; Hutnphrey,lb p.3 1). Mer- Lewis Carroll Society of North Amen’ca or in nrin’s article recounts his five-year struggle to give various books on Lewis Carroll. the word ‘buojom’ scientific respectability for the Priscilla Fawcett’s rendition8 of Alice on tip- sudden vanishing phenomenon in superfluid toes Wring at a caterpillar hookahed down on helium-3. Beach, in contrast, did not use ‘boo- a mushroom may be completely unknown outside jum’ for a scientific construct but rather as an apt botany; the artist informs me (personal commu- metaphor for the state of an entire discipline in nication, Jan. 1986) that she never received any science, namely, comparative psychology. Final- comment about her drawing of Alice and the cat- ly, part of the opening paragraph of my 1983 essay erpillar. This drawing compares most favorably on ‘Which-hunting, or whatever happened to with its Tennielian counterpart and is decidedly that?’ ~7was inspired by Carroll’s . supwior to Harry Rountree’s 1928 version repro- The poems in the Afice books, which are rsmstky duced in 0venden,9 which shows Alice in roar- parodies or burlesques of well-known literary ing 20s hairstyle and garb. Because of the excel- works (see Gardner, 1.IS, Gasson,z Macdonald, IQ lence of Priscifla Fawcett’s drawing, I reproduce and Shawzo), have in turn inspired numerous here with her permission not ordy her drawing burlesques or take-offs, particularly in parcdical but also her comments on its background: periodicals. Thus ?Jw Tea Phytofogisr, which par- odies the botanical serial 7he New Phytologisr (see When 1was doing the drawing in spring 1973, Schmidl s), offered the following: ‘Afice in the I wmted the caterpillar to be troth a caterpillar and a youngish Oxford type ‘into drugs’ as Botany School: the Meek Orange’s story’ (1934 Lewis Carroll and hk contemporaries were. It issue, p.6); ‘The Black Night’s song, from Alice waa quite respectable to experiment a linfe with in Botany land’ (1939 issue, p, 6-see also the two drugs. I supfmsea few got hum though. Obvi- untitfed starrras on pp.4-5 based on Carrolk’s ‘The ously if a caterpillar smoked, it would have to Wafms and the Carpenter’), and ‘Always through do so through its respiratory system and exhale through the spirsvdes[the smat2openings along the magnifying glass’ (1964 issue, p.8). These are each side of the thorax and abdomen of an in- take-offs of, respectively, the Meek Turtle’s song, sect that permit breathing], making multipie the Whhe Knight’s song, and the Mock Turtle’s snmke rings, etc., fcaaible. I made the spiracles song in the Alice books. rather blg became if they had been the right size There have been endless parodies of Carroll’s they wouldn’t have been so obvious. great nonsense poem ‘Jabbenvoef@ (Gardner, I Besides the delightful caterpillar, I particularly p. 194; Heath,7). However, rather few of these like the wonderful menagerie of gazing characters seem to have involved science. The only exam- from Alice’s Adventures. Of course, the botanical ple 1know involves thermrrdynaenies. This is Alex detail is also superb, as is to be expected from Pelle’s21 ‘Thersnowcdy’, which I reproduce this renowned botaNcal artist. here in full:

26 ‘Twas quarrtig, srrd the vuscy graph Clark’s opus ia humorously and skiltldly wri- Unscrewed its curves with shrill delighu tten but rather didiwtic and pessimistic. on ~ge 9, The treaty ewes began to laugh for example, the Coccus says: And the slismrd logs took Wlght.

‘Reware the Entropy Erast, my sun! ‘This hrunarrrace in surely mad The muuth that sucks, the breath that cools! They slit each other’s throats. Beware the Eohznrarm bud, and shun They blow each other off the earth. The chattering crdoric ghouls!’ They sink each other’s boats.’

He took hia dritting pen in band: ‘Should we permit,’ the Coccus asked, Long rirrrethe beast of heat he sought– ‘These sifly beasts to thrive, Then rested he try the Plinck-Pkmck tree, Who cafl themselves the lords of earth And stocd awhde in thought, Yet selfistdy connive Freedom, dignity and pce And, as in therrnaf thought he stood, From runny lands to drive?’ The Entropy Eeast, with eyes of flame, Came siurping through the melting wood, And siphoned as it came! The Human Race, in the person of Alice, is brought before the Triburral of the Microbe Parlirr- One, hvo! One, IWO!And through and ment, who have convened ‘to consider what to through. do with “man” ‘. Despite the dldacticism, the The brarrkaomepen wem snicker-snack! The head, the f=t—and now dre heat, fable presents some amusing points of microbi- Released, came streaming back. ology, has a firud apparently origirrsf poem, ‘The dream of the Unknown soldier,’ and ends on an ‘And haat thou slain the Entropy Eeast? optimistic note. As the address was written dur- Accept this laurel for your head! ing August 1938 during increasing war fears due O frabjous day! Callooh! Crdfay! to Nazi Germany’s pressures on Czechoslovakia, The gfarvish thief of heat is dead!’ the didacticism and pessimism seem understand- ‘Twas qoanrig, and the vuacy graph able. Unscrewed ita curves with shrifl delighu Heath’s vatuable articles$7 discuss several par- The beaty ewes began to laugh odies or quasiparudies of the Alice books, name- And rtre siistnal logs took flight. ly ones deafing with ‘insect-land’, ‘flowerland’, ‘mrrnstcrhurd’, ‘frivekmd’, ‘beehmd’, and ‘jtmgle- Aa a botanist, I can’t say if this parody is nonsense land’. I have seen none of these, which, at any or meaningful. rate, s=m peripheral to real or hard-core scienee. On the other hand, Newmrm’a ‘ However, very briefly mentioned by Heath5.7 are gerrea,’~ a Poem of 22 stanzas, is not a burlesque wo works on such science. The physicist George of Carroll’s “Jabberwocky’ but merely makes a Gamow23 in Mr Tompkins in few borrowings fkom it, for example, the title or attempted to sugarcoat modem physics via an ‘Beware the tnrshy-stnmp disease’! This verse is Alician vehicle complete with charming illustra- of only peripfrerai intereat to Carrollogists. tions by John Hookham. However, this work lads A most eia-borate take-off is Patd F. Clark’s verse and is, aa Heath7 correctly noted. not really 19-page Alice in Virus f#rd,~ a presidential ad- parody. Merrill’s ‘Alice’s adventures in evolu- dress to the Society of Ameriearr Bacteriologists tionland’ ,24 which Heath5 erroneously fisted and a fable embellished with humorous text, five under ‘aatirea’ rather than liidrtctic’ (the piace cartoons by W. Allen, and appreciable humour where it is discussed in Heath,7), was serialized verse. The poems include ‘The C.uecus and the in the pardlcai periudk.af Z9re Worm Runner’s Spirochaere,’ ‘Wriggle, wriggie, Spimchaete,’ Digesr (see .%htnidls). However, this work is and ‘The hrfhrenza Vkus’ based on, respective- saris verse and cartoons and on the whole is merely ly, Carroll’s ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter,’ silly and kxhous. ‘Twinkfe, twinkle, fiffle bat,’ and ‘In winter, when Lastly, disparate cartoons of Alice and a mush- the fields are white.’ This take-off is populated room appear in Norstog and hags (p.250) by with a curious admixture of Alim charaetera, viral Priscilla Fawcett, as discussed above, and in the and bacteriaf typea, fruit flies and king crabs, and 19 October 1963 77re New Yorker by Ed Fisher famous people like van Leeuwerrhcrek, Pavlov, (reproducd in Emerson,25). Also, Mackay26 and Erasmus. Of eourae Alice must be initially gave a selection of quotations fmm all three Car- shrunk to microbiad size so that she can interact roll Imoks. Inglr? dkcussed 96 fallacies and er- with the bacteria and vimaes. rors of logic in these books. However, this is a

27 Mice in Wonderland and rhe Caterpillar, by Priscilla Fawcett

28 REFERBNCRS

1. Carroll L. JIIe wuwtafed Alice: Alice’s & rhrough the looking-glass. New York: BrambaU House, 0%5S and 1871) 1960.352 p. fhmoducdon and notes by M. Gardner.) 2. -—---—-. The ikmzred Jxw’s Carroll. (Gasson R, ml.) London Jupiter, 1978, 333 p. 3. --——-, JAwis Carroll’s The hunting of ihz SW,+. (Tank J & Ooaley J, eds,) Los Altos, CA: Kaufman, (1876) 1981, 1’29 p. f,lwludes revised version of The annotated mark by M. Gardner.) 4. Clark P F. Alice in viru.dand, Medison, MT: society of AMeric.m Bacteriolognw, 193S 23 p. (W. AUen cmtcans reprinted in Chron. B@an. 5:515, 1939, ) 5. Heath P. A check list of pamdi~ of ‘Alice’, Jabben+c.+ J. Jzwis Carroll SoC, 13:78-84, 1984, 6. Montgomery L. ‘‘.Mice in Wonderland” parodies and imitations and relaled matters, listed from the mttecticm of or. tatl Montgomery. Jabbenwcky: J. L?wis Chroll SOC. 12:13-7, 1972. 7. Heath P. Ahcian parodies. Jabbenvo@: J, Lewis Carroll Sot. 13:68-77, 1984. S Norsbg K & Long R W. fti biology. Philadelphia Saunders, 1976, 585 p. 9. Dvenden G, at. lrw illu.nrafors of Alice in Wonderland and 3Jwough du kwking-.qtass. London: Academy Edki.ns, 1972, 101p. 10. Merntfn N D. E phuibus beojum: the physicist as mmlogist. Pfiys. Today 34(4):46-53, 1981, II. WaMrop M M. f-et us now praise famous boojums. Science 212:1378, 1981. 12. Batch F A. The mark was a boojum. Amer. Psychd 5:115-24, 1950. (Reprinted in: McGill T E, MI, Readings in animal behavior. New York HoIt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977. p. 5-16.) 13. Latt P & Demher W N. latter to edkor. &twjums.) Science 213:394, 1981. 14. The mark was a boojum, probably. Nafure 311 :3X!, 1984 15. ScJmtfd R. Humor in the scientific literature revisited. Biologist. fJn press,) 16. Humphrey R R. % bmjum and ifs home; Idria columnans Kellogg and in ecological niche. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1974.214 p. 17. Schmld R. Which-hunting, or wlkatever happened to that? Ta.ron 32:62 I-2. 1983. 18. Gardner M. Speak roughly. Order and surprise. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1983. p. 173-87. 19. Macdonald D, ed. Parodies: an andwlogy from Cbaucm to BeerboAm-and a~er. New York: Random House, 1960574 p. 20. Shaw J M. % parodies ofCnvisCarroll and {heir origmds. Tallahassee, FL: Florida State Uni.ersiy Library, 1960.14 p. 21. Felk A. TheMIowocky Amer. Sci. 4(x I 16A, 1960. 22. Newman M. Jabkrwcdy genes. Perspect, Bio/. Med. 26:127-31, 1982. 23. Gamow G. Mr Tompkins in wmuferfnnd or stories of c, G, and h. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univermy Press, 1939, 91 p. 24. Mort’fll T. Alice’s adventures in evolutionkmd. parts I-IV. Worm Runner’s Dig@s! 3:81-90, 1%1; 3:198-208, 1%1; 4:69-80, I%2; 5;78-92, 1%3. 25. Emerson R. Mycological relevance in the nineteen seventies. Trans. Brb. MYCOL Sot. 0363-87, 1973. 26. Mackay A L. i%e hatvesr of a quiet eye. Bristol, uK: [nstmm of physics, 1977. 192 p. 27. Jngk D J. FaUacies and errors in tie wonderknds of b,ology, mdlcirw, and Lewis Carroll. Perspect. BioL Med. 15:254-81, 1972,

AUTHOR’S NOTE (18 December 19S8)

The iwue of .fabberwocky containing this article appeared in summer 1987, though it is dated sum- mer 1985. The article is reprinted with minor corrections, mostly to the bibliography. My 1986 Biol- ogisr paper cited therein (reference 15) got too big for its britches and is thus being expanded into a book to be published by Timber Press, Portland, Oregon. Examples of the scienee-hwis Carroll connection proliferate, for instance, those noted in Eugene Garfield’s introduction, and by my own hand. As editor of the c‘Reviews and notices of publication” column in Tzxorr: ~ournui of the Irrrer- na?ional Association for Pbrr Taxonomy, I have since its February 1987 issue taken the liberty of inserting in each column an appropriate quote from Lewis Carroll’s works (see Town 38:78). For example, my favorite quote applies to the ever-behind Kw Record of Toxonomic Literature: “It takes all the mnning you can do, to keep in the same place’ ‘–The Red Queen. Others wishing to indulge in such naughtiness will find C .A. Miller’s] index of Carrolliana invaluable and may find further inspiration ligtening to David Del Tredici’&3 Alice epic or Mike Batt’s4 Srrark saga (for details and cited reviews we reference 5).

REFERENCES

1. MilJer C A. Isn ‘t ttwt Lewis Carrolf? A guide to the most mimsy words and fmbjous quotations of L#wis Curroll’s Alice’s adventures in Wonderland, llrough the tm?king-gtam, and 77u hunting of the mark. New Market, VA: Trackaday, 19S4, 126 p. 2. WI Tredfci D, Final Alice. Chicago Symphony. Sir Georg SOlti conductinrf, with soprano Barbara Hendricks. I.mndon LDR 71018, 19S1. (Record.) 3. —---—. In memory of a summer day (Chifd Alice, part one). St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Leonard SIatkin UXtducdng. with soprano Phyttis Bryn-Julwn. Nonesuch 79343 or 9-79043, 19S3. (Record or compact disc.) 4. Batt M. 37whuming of dw snark based on bw”s Carroll’s epic mm.semw poem. London Symphony Orchestra. Mike Batt conducting, with Sir John Gielgud and John Hum narrating and parts by Roger Daltrey, George Harrison, Julian knon, ArI Garhmkel, and six orher rock musicians. AdventtueJEpic CD Snark 1, 19S6, (Compact disc.) 5. BcJtndd R. Three recent recordings of CarroUiamm Jabbenwcky? J. Lzwis Carroll Sot. (In press.)

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