96 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



philosopher who has had time to think his soul to oneness under the 

 rule of reason. Euthanasia might become a wholesome doctrine if 

 time should dissolve our present, perhaps animal, feelings, and replace 

 them by more economical sentiments. But, as we are, it could only be 

 an esoteric doctrine for the few who might have opportunities of end- 

 ing hopeless misery by chloroform without giving needless pain to their 

 friends. That is, it would be applicable only in the way Prof. Newman 

 deprecates. 



" It may, of course, be urged that there has been a latent change in 

 men's notions of life and death which only needs expression, and that, 

 if men talked freely, many would be found to talk Euthanasia. But 

 facts like the growing aversion to capital punishment seem to point 

 the other way. It is not because we feel less keenly the horror of mur- 

 der, but because we are more scrupulous about taking even the least 

 worthy life. Take the growing leniency toward infanticide. It is not 

 because there is a change of opinion as to the duty of keeping even 

 superfluous babies alive, but because we are more reluctant to take a 

 woman's life in vengeance for a child's. Again, the sense that under 

 certain circumstances it would be better for us or those dear to us to 

 die, is surely far from being the true wish for death overwhelming the 

 passionate impulse to keep up life to the last. 



" It might be said, too, that the apology of Euthanasia stands on 

 the same footing as the apology of cowardice, such as those French 

 towns showed whose people did not think it worth while to hold out. 

 Was it, or was it not worth while ? " . 



+ 



FREEZING OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 



By Prof. FE. MOHK. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, BY J. FITZGERALD, A. M. 



IT is a fact, as yet unaccounted for, that, whereas the thawing-point 

 of ice is constant, the freezing-point of water may, under certain 

 conditions, be brought 'considerably below the temperature at which 

 ice begins to melt. In glass vessels, with free access of air, pure water 

 may be reduced to a temperature of from 15 to 17 Fahr. below the 

 thawing-point, or, in a vacuum, from 18 to 20 Fahr. without freez- 

 ing. A slight concussion, or contact with any rough surface, but espe- 

 cially with ice or snow, causes congelation at once, and the tempera- 

 ture ascends to the thawing-point. This rise of temperature is usually 

 explained by the transition from the liquid to the solid form ; but this 

 is, after all, no true explanation, but merely a putting together of two 

 facts which are apparently very nearly related. 



