POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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some of the inferences which appear to them 

 to follow from modern scientific theories, 

 but who know well that they would but de- 

 grade their cause and themselves (to say 

 nothing of their calling) were they to sub- 

 stitute reviling for rhetoric and railing for 

 reasoning." Then Mr. Proctor quotes such 

 passages from the attack as are fit for pub- 

 lication, and adds : " Nearly three centuries 

 ago there was at least earnestness in the 

 arguments used by priests, and monks, and 

 friars, against the fearful doctrine that the 

 earth goes round the sun. Unwise though 

 their conduct, and unjudging their intoler- 

 ance, they believed what they taught, and 

 in their day their belief was natural enough. 

 It is encouraging to find that in our day the 

 advance of science is only opposed by the 

 untaught and the foolish ; only abused by 

 the ranter and the Jack-Pudding. When 

 we consider how necessary are certain doc- 

 trines for the world's welfare even though 

 hereafter they may have to give place to 

 higher and broader and deeper truths it is 

 well to see that those who do their best to 

 discredit those doctrines are not now men 

 whose words have any weight, are not even 

 fanatics or bigots, but simply clowns and 

 charlatans." 



The Recent Eclipse of the Sun. The 

 formal reports of the observations of the 

 solar eclipse of the 6th of May last have not 

 yet been published ; but a few preliminary 

 statements respecting them have appeared 

 in the journals. The American, French, 

 and English parties arrived safely and in 

 good time at Caroline Island, and set up 

 their apparatus under generally satisfactory 

 conditions. The day of the eclipse opened 

 rather unfavorably, but the sky cleared be- 

 fore the first contact. The clouds continued, 

 however, to float around, so that the corona 

 was partly hidden during twenty seconds of 

 the first minute of totality, and the phenom- 

 enon was wholly obscured after the cessation 

 of totality. As totality, however, lasted for 

 nearly five minutes and a half, good obser- 

 vations of that stage were obtained. The 

 supposed intra-Mercurial planets were sought 

 but not found. Photography does not seem 

 to have given the results that were expected 

 from it ; but it is said that proofs were got 

 the combination of which will permit the 



reconstruction of the entire corona as it was 

 shown at the time. Mr. Hastings, of Balti- 

 more, made some observations on the spec- 

 tra of the opposite sides of the corona, from 

 which he has drawn the conclusion that the 

 outer portions of it are not real, but are ef- 

 fects of diffraction. This conclusion, " Ciel et 

 Terrc," of Brussels, observes, would account 

 for the differences of form which the corona 

 exhibits to different observers, but fails to 

 account for the predominance of coronal 

 light toward the solar equator. M. Janssen 

 observed anew that, besides the spectrum of 

 bright lines, the corona gives a weak con- 

 tinuous spectrum showing some of the prin- 

 cipal dark rays of the solar spectrum. This 

 would favor the theory that the light really 

 proceeds from the coronal appendage, and 

 that its exterior is made up of a mass of 

 meteors reflecting the light of the sun a 

 theory that is already supported by the re- 

 sults of polariscopic analysis. It is also 

 stated that M. Tacchini has observed near 

 the limit of the coronal atmosphere the spec- 

 trum of a hydrocarbon similar to that which 

 i comets give when they are far from the sun. 



Function and Structure. The French 

 Academy of Medicine recently discussed the 

 question whether an identity of action ex- 

 ists between the living tissues of animals 

 and of men. M. Bechamp denied any simi- 

 larity, and alleged differences in the prop- 

 erties of the salivas of man and animals, 

 and between the milks of man, the cow, and 

 the goat, in support of his view. The an- 

 swer to this, as suggested by the " Lancet," 

 is that, in the process of evolution, function 

 precedes structure ; hence the legitimate 

 corollary is deduced that the properties of 

 a tissue are more delicate tests of its nature 

 than the structure. It is more than prob- 

 able, however, that in drawing this conclu- 

 sion we are swerved by the imperfections of 

 our senses, and that molecular structure 

 goes hand-in-hand with function, and that 

 a change in property is accompanied by a 

 corresponding variation in the arrangement 

 of the constituent atoms of a molecule. 

 Every cell and every molecule has its indi- 

 vidual characteristics, and these idiosyncra- 

 sies may extend to different individuals of 

 the same species, to different species, and 

 to different genera. 



