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TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



step over a rigid line, to refrain from investigation 

 because it would clash with common-sense ideas ? 

 How far should we have advanced in knowledge 

 if scientific men had never made known new dis- 

 coveries, never published the results of their re- 

 searches for fear of outraging this "common- 

 sense of educated mankind ? " Take the very 

 subject which suggests the text for Dr. Carpen- 

 ter's article. Can the wildest dreams of the 

 spiritualist ask credence to anything more repug- 

 nant to " common-sense " than the hypothesis 

 imagined by Science and now held to account for 

 the movements of the radiometer ? In the glass 

 bulb which has been exhausted to such a degree 

 that " common-sense " would pronounce it to be 

 quite empty, we must conceive there are innu- 

 merable smooth elastic spheres, the molecules of 

 the residual gas, dashing about in apparent con- 

 fusion, with sixty times the velocity of an express- 

 train, and hitting each other millions of times in 



a second. Will the " common-sense of educated 

 mankind " consider this rational doctrine ? Again, 

 both inside this empty space and outside it, be- 

 tween the reader and the paper before him, be- 

 tween the earth and the sun, occupying all the 

 interplanetary space farther than the eye can 

 reach or indeed the mind can conceive, there is as- 

 sumed to be a something indefinitely more elastic 

 and immeasurably more solid than tempered steel, 

 a medium in which suns and worlds move without 

 resistance. Is not such a doctrine utterly incredi- 

 ble to the " common-sense of educated mankind ? " 

 Yet the kinetic theory of gases and the undula- 

 tory theory of light are accepted as true by nine- 

 tenths of the scientific men of the present day ; 

 and doubtless in the processes of scientific evolu- 

 tion in the coming times many a discovery will be 

 bi ought to light to give a sharp shock to the 

 " common-sense of educated mankind." — Nine- 

 teenth Century. 



CAP— A NEW ENGLAND DOG. 



By THOMAS K. WILLIAMS. 



CAP was the usual name of Captain; its own- 

 er being a large Newfoundland dog just 

 crossed with the stag-hound, making him the 

 handsomest animal I ever saw, standing very tall, 

 with elegantly-curved neck and long, silky ears 

 that one could pull down and meet under his 

 chin. His whole head was a wonder of dog-beau- 

 ty, with long nose and wondrously expressive 

 eyes, which laughed or cried with you, always 

 sympathizing whatever your mood might be; 

 ready for a romp, or to come and press his nose 

 through your arm, looking up with almost crying 

 eyes, seeming to wish to show bis sorrow at your 

 grief. He had great tact, greater than many hu- 

 man friends, never obtruding his sympathy ; but 

 lying quietly down, his nose between his paws, 

 he would watch every changing expression of 

 face, till the time came when he thought he could 

 offer tangible sympathy ; then he would get up 

 and come to you, seeming to wish, by showing his 

 own excessive love, to make amends for any short- 

 comings on the part of the world. And in re- 

 turn, having given his all, he wished the same, 

 and could not put up with any division of affec- 

 tion with any other animal, scarcely with a hu- 

 man being ; and his intelligence aided his jealousy 

 in gaining the point. He always accompanied my 



father to the office, which was at the head of a 

 very long flight of stairs, and there spent most of 

 the day, amusing himself indifferently with look- 

 ing out of the window and with the people com- 

 ing to and from the office. One warm day, the 

 door being open, and being much bored and put 

 to it as to how to spend his time, he spied a black- 

 and-tan dog which belonged across the street : 

 acting on the impulse, he went down and invited 

 him up ; which arrangement was very pleasing 

 and satisfactory till, in the course of their play, 

 Mr. Black-and-Tan jumped into a chair beside my 

 father, who, attracted by the little thing, put out 

 his hand and caressed him. Captain was very 

 angry, and almost flew at the dog, then thought 

 better of it, and bided his time. When Black- 

 and-Tan got down, Cap was unusually amiable 

 and frisky, playing with him round and round, 

 always a little nearer and nearer the door, till, at 

 the head of the stairs, he gave one great shove, 

 and sent him flying to the bottom. And never 

 was that little dog allowed over those stairs again. 

 When he saw him coming, or when he himself 

 wished for a play, he would go down and play in 

 the hall below, or in the street, thus keeping full 

 possession of his own domain. 



He had a remarkable memory, recognizing 



