610 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Gunpowder was discovered from tbo falling of a spark on 

 some materials mixed in a mortar. 



Electricity was discovered by a person observing that a 

 piece of rubbed glass attracted small bits of paper. Thales, 

 of Miletus (600 b.c), noted this with amber. 



Musical notation was discovered by an Egyptian observer 

 noticing the different ring of blacksmiths' hammers. 



The beautiful capitol of a Corinthian column was dis- 

 covered by an Athenian in his garden noticing a slab of stone 

 placed accidentally upon a basket. 



I think we owe the telescope to the children of a spectacle- 

 maker in Germany, who, for amusement, looked through two'or 

 more pairs of spectacles to the distant sky. The microscope 

 was naturally the reverse of the telescope, and followed down 

 step by step to its present state of improvement ;— for when man 

 once perceives any secret in nature he is endowed with the 

 power, for his own good, of following it out to the utter- 

 most. Nothing is therefore too little for man's attention. 

 A 6,000-ton steamer, or a great war-ship, are instances of 

 man practically applying his discoveries. Would it not be 

 absurd to say that man invented a great steamship, with all its 

 steam and electric marvels ? I should say that a steamship, 

 or a railroad, or the electric telegraph, or telephone are fully 

 as much guided by great natural laws as the formation of the 

 hexagon cells of the honeycomb. I shall show later on how 

 ridiculous and absurd Darwin's account of this cell-formation 

 by natural selection really is. 



Vaccination for smallpox was discovered by one of our 

 medical men observing that milkmaids in the country districts 

 were free from the disease. 



A few drops of aquafortis fell accidentally on the spectacles 

 of a Nuremberg cutler, and the process of etching upon glass 

 was revealed. 



The dew one night rusted the gun-barrrel of a sentry, and 

 since then mezzotints have delighted the eyes of men. 



The process of lithographing was perfected by purely acci- 

 dental circumstances. A poor musician was anxious to know 

 whether music could not be etched upon stone as well as 

 upon copper. He had just prepared a slab when his mother, 

 who evidently did not profit by his art, asked him to make a 

 memorandum of some clothes to be washed . Neither pen nor 

 paper being at hand, he wrote the list on the stone with an 

 etching preparation, intending to make a copy at a more con- 

 venient time. When about to clean off the stone he 

 wondered what effect aquafortis would have upon it. The 

 application of the acid made the writing stand out in relief. 

 He found he could make a perfect impression by inking the 

 stone. 



