Phillips. — On a Common Vital Force. 609 



strengthened by spiral wire follows the same jDlan as the 

 spiral vessels of plants. I must thank Mr. H. B. Kirk for 

 these additions to my list of analogies.] 



Section II. — Discovery v. Invention. 



At the last meeting of the Society one of the members 

 considered that I was not justified in saying the telescope was 

 a discovery. He considered it an invention. I wish now to 

 give instances of accidental discovery. I have been col- 

 lecting for some years to prove that the common vital force 

 directly guides man by constantly imparting to him, as if 

 accidentally, secrets of great utility for his welfare ; that these 

 secrets are constantly being imparted, but fall upon barren 

 ground if man is not ready to receive them. They occupy, as 

 it were, a similar position to those microscopic germs of plants 

 or insects, suitable to particular climates and conditions of 

 life, constantly floating through space, and ready to blossom 

 or spring into actual visible life and existence directly they 

 find a suitable habitat upon any planet. So that when 

 man's mental condition and surrounding acquirements are 

 ready to receive any secret the secret comes out, and its 

 beauty is at once admitted. I would ask pardon for thus 

 boldly stating the thoughts of many years, as I am not a 

 scientific man in the true sense of the word, but only an 

 observer of natural phenomena. Now as to these accidental 

 discoveries of great importance. 



Edison, experimenting upon the telephone, to his complete 

 surprise and amazement accidentally discovered the phono- 

 graph. Electrical discoveries are always named as such, and 

 not by the word "inventions." We invent, perhaps, the ap- 

 paratus for taking advantage of the discoveries. 



Mrs. Nasmyth suggested to her husband one night in bed 

 to place a wooden shoe, like the one she wore in wet weather, 

 between the iron head and the piston-rod of his new hammer. 

 Thus was the steam-hammer perfected. Before that acci- 

 dental suggestion Nasmyth could not get his hammer to stand 

 the shock of impact. 



A little boy, wishing to play, attached a piece of string to 

 the shaft of one of our first steam-engines, at the pit's mouth, 

 so as to save himself the trouble of opening and closing the 

 steam- valve. This was our first eccentric rod. 



One of our first steam-engineers, desirous of preventing the 

 escape of steam from frightening horses along the roads, 

 turned the escape up the chimney, thus accidentally pro- 

 ducing draught, and so giving us high speed. 



It is said that the art of printing took its origin from some 

 rude impressions taken for the amusement of children from 

 letters carved on the bark of a tree. 

 39 



