i 7 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



umph of evolution, both in its relation to man and the totality of 

 nature, he has brought near to him many of the outlying provinces of 

 human knowledge, and poured upon them. a flood of light. 



To the investigation of principles has succeeded the application of 

 useful inventions. Theories have almost invariably germinated into 

 practical science. From the study of mathematics, physics, chemistry, 

 and geology, industries have been developed which have made the 

 commonest dwelling of modern times a palace and the poorest cities 

 a miracle of magnificence, compared with those of the past. 



And all of this material advancement has been attended by a cor- 

 responding diffusion of knowledge and awakening of intellectual ac- 

 tivity, so that the merest tyro in knowledge, at the present day, sur- 

 passes in intellectual acquisitions all that the most successful scholar 

 of Greece and Rome could boast of, even though he had mastered all 

 the learning of antiquity. More marvelous still, the latest expression 

 of psychological science forces upon us the conviction that the mental 

 faculties themselves, in harmony with the results of evolution every- 

 where else, are brought within its grasp, that they are thus enlarged 

 in their capacity, and made equal to the task of furnishing through 

 the revolving ages disclosures of the almost limitless secrets of the 

 material world, and of the agency which brought it into being. 



Here then, finally, we may look for the only avenue of escape 

 from the doom with which literature was threatened a doom not un- 

 like that which settled over the Empire of Dullness as painted by the 

 poet. In that picture the whole assembled concourse of wits and 

 critics are represented as falling into a profound slumber, while listen- 

 ing to the sleepy literary performances of one or two of their heroes. 

 Nor did they ever rise out of this lethargy. Fortunately, the compari- 

 son ends here. For while, without doubt, the same leaden slumber 

 was fast settling over the prostrate form of modern Literature, the 

 mighty enchantress, modern Science, touched it at the propitious mo- 

 ment with her potent rod, and woke into new life its exhausted and 

 dying energies. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHAMELEON. 



By 0. R. BACHELER, M. D., 



MEDICAL MISSIONARY AT MIDNAPOEE, INDIA. 



HAVING recently come in possession of a family of these inter- 

 esting little animals, I have found both pleasure and instruction 

 in studying their habits. Others of the lizard tribe are not averse 

 to, and many seem to prefer, the vicinity of men, while the chameleon 

 always seeks the deep jungle, away from observation. 



A woman from the jungle who happened to discover their haunts 



