1879

Society

1879. Congress gives women the right to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1879. The incandescent bulb that Edison demonstrates October 21 has a loop of cotton thread impregnated with lamp black and baked for hours in a carbonizing oven.

1879. Russian pathologist Ivan Pavlov shows with studies on dogs that the stomach produces gastric juices even without the introduction of food. Pavlov will proceed to develop the concept of acquired, or conditioned, reflex.

1879. F. W. Woolworth Co. has its beginnings at Watertown, NY, where store clerk Frank Winfield Woolworth persuades his employer to install a counter at which all goods are priced at 5 cents.

1879. St. Patrick's Cathedral opens in New York after 26 years of work.

1879. Buffalo hunters kill the last of the Southern bison herd at Buffalo Springs, Tex.

1879. The first milk bottles appear at Brooklyn, NY, where the Echo Farms Dairy delivers milk in glass bottles instead of measuring it into the pitchers of housewives and serving-maids from barrels carried in milk wagons.

Literature

A Doll's House. Henrik Ibsen. Norwegian. 1879. Play. Nora sheltered, petted by her father, then by her husband. Seeks to go out on her own to become a full human being.

The Egoist. George Meredith. British. 1879. Novel. Sir Willoughby has it all except humility and a sense of humor. His visiting lover wants out. Romantic mixups.

Green Henry. Gottfried Keller. German. 1879/80. Novel. Bildungsroman. Hasn't talent to be a painter. Neglects his mother. She dies and he feels guilt (Version 1). Version 2: Mother dies. Henry adjusts himself to a life of civic service as a government official.

The Brothers Karamazov. Fyodor Dostoevsky. Russian. 1879/80. Novel. Story of crime. Novel of religious, ethical ideas; social document. Judicial reforms. Literal, religious, social, ethical levels buttressed by psychological probings.

A Confession. Leo Tolstoy. Russian. 1879/81. Nonfiction. Account of a spiritual crisis; discontent with his life in civilized society. Living close to nature essential.