XXIII. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF MINUTE THINGS OF LIFE IN PAST AND 



PRESENT TIMES. 

 By Peofessoe T. Eupeet Jones, F.E.S., P.G.S, 



A Lecture delivered at Watford, Itli November, 1882. 



I AM not going to speak of the minutiae and trifles of Human 

 Life — important as they are — little pleasures forming the main 

 support of continued happiness, and little troubles being the source 

 of great misery, just as morsels of stone make a good or a bad road- 

 way according to the mode of their deposit — whether laid down 

 well or ill. The rules of Macadam may appear trifling to some 

 minds, but to the exact mind and by those interested in the matter 

 minute accuracy is required. We are often reminded of the im- 

 portance of little things in common proverbs relating to every-day 

 affair's, as "Take care of the pence and the pounds will take cure 

 of themselves;" also, "Sands rise to mountains — moments make 

 the year." 



The moment, a point of time, and the minute, a minute space of 

 time, mark ofi: our existence with ceaseless exactitude, whether we 

 recognise them with punctuality and industry or not. The minute 

 trifles of dress and adornment have to be attended to with more or 

 less particularity ; buttons and stitches are all important in one way 

 or another. The silkworm's filament, the wool and haii' of the 

 sheep and other useful animals, are small indeed, but how much 

 importance belongs to their goodness and integrity and their fitness 

 for web and woof ! So the single hairs of added tresses, and the 

 fine atoms of toilet powders, must be good and true, the one strong, 

 the other pure, to be safe adjuncts to the fashionable head-dresses 

 and to the delicate tints of female beauty. All of these are not 

 things of life ; nor can the atoms of chemistry be said to be vital, 

 though of vital importance to all of us in many respects. Nor are 

 the tiny grains of hard mineral matter in sandstone (so useful in 

 pavements and houses) of organic origin ; though some rocks allied 

 to sandstone have been formed of the minute — very minute — 

 siliceous framework of Diatom acese and Polycystina, or of the 

 siliceous spicules of sponges. In limestones, however, nearly all, 

 and sometimes quite all the constituent particles have once been 

 portions of aquatic animals or of water-plants that had carbonate of 

 lime in their structure. How important the microscopic cells and 

 fibres of wood are the naturalist well knows ; and to the carpenter 

 and builder, little as they know of histology, their importance is 

 great in a practical point of view, as ruling the grain of wood and 

 its relative hardness and durability. So also we soon find out when 

 the fine-grained dentine and enamel of our teeth become modified 

 in their intimate tissue, and lose even the relative solidity of bone, 

 giving us the pain of unprotected nerves, instead of the satisfaction 

 of eating hard-celled toothsome crust or even the vesicular crumb 

 of bread. The minute tissues, then, of our own bodies would 



