788 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



when the consul L. Papirius Cursor, making war upon the Samnites, 

 frightened the enemy with the noise of a drove of them rushing down 

 the mountain and dragging large limbs behind them ; and when Julius 

 Caesar, in the civil wars, prevented the Pompeiians in Spain from de- 

 camping by marching his mules with a great bustle by their camp, and 

 making them think that he was retiring. 



Our historical citations show, then, with great probability, that the 

 two asinine races are natives of hot countries, the one of the region of 

 the Upper Nile, the other of the Hispano- Atlantic center. For this 

 reason they are difficult of acclimation in cold regions, while they are 

 better able than horses to endure the torrid temperature of the dia- 

 mond-regions of Southern Africa. Furthermore, the African or Nilotic 

 ass was diffused from a very ancient period over a geographical area 

 which extended at least from the Ganges to the Atlantic Ocean, while 

 the European or Hispano-Atlantic ass has hardly got beyond the 

 boundaries of his original country. The history of asses, then, as well 

 as that of horses, testifies that the ancient migrations of civilization 

 did not start from the western part of the continent. 



SPECULATIONS ON THE NATURE OF MATTER* 



By HENEY HOBAET BATES, M. A. 



T i 



1HE nature of matter is still almost as unknown to us in its essence 

 as it was to the ancients, since in its minute structure it lies far 

 below the range of the senses, or of instrumental appliances, and, 

 therefore, beyond that direct experimental field so necessary in fur- 

 nishing primary conceptions to the mind. From the impossibility of 

 originating entirely novel ideas (which would amount to creative 

 power), we are forced to combine and recombine such conceptions as 

 we have, derived from experiences within that excessively small por- 

 tion of the scale of being within the ken of our perceptions and fac- 

 ulties. This perceptible scale has been somewhat extended in both 

 directions by refined modern instrumental means, and thus the number 

 of elementary concepts has been slightly increased, while precision 

 has been added to those already in possession, by stricter modes of 

 analysis. 



The field, however, is still largely speculative. It might, there- 

 fore, seem unprofitable and unscientific to labor in it, were it not for 

 the urgent necessity for and great value of some working hypothesis, 

 however crude (if on the road to truth), as an aid and stimulus to 

 further progress. Without hypothesis, we can not interpret or collo- 



* Read before the Philosophical Society of Washington, January 27, 1S83. 



