SPACE AND TIKE. 



SPKAKrNO-MACHINK. 



CM 



anything: we (peak of our conception* of them. IV if it rouM ! 

 imagined that f/xirr mun' At certain !, 



to make it cease in our own neighbourhood ; ami if duration could ! 

 imagined to hare an mil. it would not be difficult ti place .ourselves in 

 thought within five minutes of that end. The denial of tin- |w-il.ility 

 of our approaching the boundary of ipaee or time in imr thoughts, is 

 the same thing ai the denial of the existence of such a boundary ; and 

 the notion of infinity becomes a relief from the incongruit;. 

 attempt to conceive existence stripped of ita essential conditions. But 

 it might be asked why not, as to space at least, consider real existing 

 extension, not as the object of our thoughts, but as it would exist if 

 we were not alive to think ? Is it, or is it not, physically possible to 

 go on for ever in space f If a person could provide himself with an 

 unlimited supply or motive power, air, heat, food, &c., must we, or 

 most we not, say that there la anything to hinder his travelling to all 

 eternity f For ourselves, we should say there is clearly nothing to 

 hinder ; but of course we cannot appeal to experiment, and it may be 

 only the impossibility of destroying our own conception of space which 

 dictates an answer as to that external reality which, let metaphysicians 

 say what they please, can always be established by a ware of the hand. 

 We should have supposed that, mysterious as the connection may be 

 between the external world and our impressions of it, the possibility ( 

 really infinite external space would be admitted by any one, unless he 

 held the metaphysical system of Berkeley, which denies the necessity 

 of any external substratum of our conceptions, and substitutes the 

 direct agency of the Creator ; and we should have thought it impossible 

 to maintain the necessary finitude of matter, without also maintaining 

 the same of real external space. Nevertheless, to show how differently 

 these subjects strike different persons, we quote the following from a 

 dissertation of an eminent writer : " Every real, existing, material 

 body must enjoy that indefeasible attribute of body namely, definite 

 place. Now place is defined by direction and distance from a fixed 

 point. Every body, therefore, which docs exist, exists at a certain 

 definite distance from us, and at no other, either more or less. The 

 distance of every individual body in the universe from us is therefore 

 necessarily admitted to be finite. Now it will hardly be denied that 

 the space which a body fills is as real and existent 03 the body itself, 

 and this whether so occupied or not. Leave out the word material in 

 the above, and for " body " read " part of space," and the argument 

 remains as good as before, ending with a denial of the infinity of space. 

 Every attiynatile body is at a finite distance from us ; but this is an 

 identical proposition contained in the meaning of the word assignable. 

 But who is therefore to deny the following ? Name any distance, how- 

 ever great ; matter exists at still greater distances. 



If we estimate the reality of a conception by its necessity, which is 

 what we do when we settle the pre-eminence of space and time among 

 our ideas, then it is certain that the conception of infinity is as real as 

 that of space or time, being essentially united with them. Many 

 mathematicians try to deny this, and substitute various modes of 

 speaking to avoid the introduction of the idea. It is true that the 

 notion of infinite is one which it is difficult to use without falling into 

 error ; a very good reason for avoiding it until the understanding has 

 been well practised in mathematical deduction, but none for denying 

 its existence. Why say that the notion of infinity arises from our not 

 being able to assign a limit, when we know that we feel something 

 more positive ; when we are as certain as we ore of any right to use 

 the words ran and cannot, that there cannot be a limit, to either space 

 or time T Those who examine the views of different writers on the 

 first principles of science see a great variety of modes of expression on 

 this point, but a uniform practical use of nothing more than the denial 

 of finitiK/e, accompanied by the mere expression of incapacity to attain 

 infinity ; resolutely coupled, in many cases, with a determination not 

 to allow any words capable of expressing the absolute notion of infinity 

 which actually is before the thoughts. Now it should be the object of 

 elementary writing, while guarding the avenues to error which branch 

 in all directions from an improper use of the word infinite, to acknow- 

 ledge the existence of the idea, and to make a grodu.il preparation for 

 its correct and legitimate use. Both infinitely small and infinitely 

 great ought to become terms which may be employed without fear ; 

 and the student who bos been trained to the natural .-mil healthy use 

 of all his notions will in the end succeed better than the one who has 

 had some of them tied up from the beginning because they are some- 

 what difficult or somewhat unsafe to use at first 



So soon as an attempt is mode to. fetter one branch of thought, the 

 effect is sure to be immediately felt in others. The infinite divisibility 

 of space is a truth of the some sort as its infinite extension. './..-.'/,. 

 may not be divisible without end, and the truths of modern chemistry 

 would seem to show that there are ultimate jmrticles inseparable by 

 chemical, and still less by mechanical, means. But there is a solvent 

 which everyone has it in his power to apply to space ; it Is the intuitive 

 conviction that every portion of it, however n i that ultimate 



notion which is called a point, is divisible inti> jiarU. which al 

 selves divisible into parU; a process which may be continued without. 

 end. Now, a jwmon who trifles with the notion of infinite extension, 

 and penuades himself that he has not the idea, will piolal.ly end by 

 denying infinite diminution ; and as motion, however small it may l>c, 

 requires the succession of positions answering to .in unlimit 

 ration of the time of motion into parts, the next step will be to deny 



the infinite divisibility f time, and the possibility of motion, as com- 

 monly . i. Imnge of place will be imagined to be physically 

 impossible, if it bo asserted tli .the first and last po- 

 there have Keen an infinite number of others ; ami the mind will 1": 

 Irivon, in order to avoid the notion of Infinity, Into a sort of opinion 

 that motion is a very large (but finite) number of annihilations and 

 re-creations : annihilation in one spot, and re-creation a little farther 

 on, without anything intermediate. This is no imaginary case ; and 

 it seems to us that when this theory of motion is once attained, 

 nature has taken a satirical revenge for the attempt to smother her 

 conceptions. 



The errors which arise from the Improper use of the notion of 

 infinite, lie mostly in the idea that all that is proved of finite space or 

 time must necessarily be true of the infinite. We pass over the error 

 that all infinites must be equal, as being that of the merest beginner ; 

 there are enough remaining to claim great caution. The process 

 adopted in the article INFINITE is perhaps the best way of habituating 

 the young mind to the rigorous attainment of results, provided only 

 that the understanding be duly apprised that such a course of pro- 

 ceeding is not pursued because there is not infinity, but because there 

 is, and because the notion, though inevitable, is not easily used. The 

 rood need not be carried over any unsafe foundation ; but that is no 

 reason why the quicksand and the marsh should be left out of 

 the map. 



SPACES, in Music, the intervals between the five lines forming the 

 staff. [STAFF.] 



SPAHIS (or rather Sipdha, from the Persian tipah, meaning a 

 cavalry soldier), ore a body of Turkish cavalry organised by Amurath I. 

 (MA rod), who was also the founder of the Janizaries. Their number 

 varied according to circumstances, but amounted sometimes to 20,000. 

 They enjoyed many privileges in common with the Janizaries. Their 

 usual arms were a sabre, a lance, a jereed or dart about two feet long, 

 which they hurled with great dexterity and strength, and a second 

 sabre, or rather broadsword, attached to the saddle. Some of them 

 had also a carabine and one or two pistols. At one time they were 

 the most formidable body of cavalry in the Turkish army ; but being 

 an undisciplined and unruly militia, they were, together with the 

 Janizaries, dissolved by sultan Malimud, and their place is now sup- 

 plied by the Bashi Bazouks. [JANIZAIUES.] 



SPANIOLITMIN. [LICHENS, COLOUIUXO MATTERS OF.] 

 UTEIN. [SCOPAKIS.] 



SPASM (from the Greek mroa-juo's) is an unhealthy, involuntary, 

 and forcible contraction of muscular tissue. The term is almost syno- 

 nymous with conrulsion, but is more generally applied than that word 

 is to the unhealthy painful contractions of the heart, intestines, and 

 other involuntary muscles. 



Nosologists have distinguished spasms into clonic, in which the 

 muscular contractions alternate rapidly with relaxations (as in epilepsy), 

 and tonic, in which the contracted fibres remain for a long time riyid, 

 as in tetanus ; but in nature the distinction is not well marked. Spasm 

 has also often been regarded as occurring in many tissues in which 

 it is perhaps not possible, such as the small blood-vessels. In the 

 present day its occurrence is believed to be limited to the muscles. 

 What their condition is when affected by spasm is not precisely known. 

 Very generally the contraction is unnatural, not only in its origin and 

 its continuance, but in its extent ; for it does not take place simulta- 

 neously, or in a regular succession, in each part of the muscle, but, as 

 one may often see in common cramp, it affects a single portion of the 

 muscle, drawing it up into a hard mass, while the fibres above and below 

 it are much less contracted, or are even elongated. 



The greater number of spasms seem to depend on an irritation of 

 the nervous centres. Sometimes they are produced by primary disease 

 in those ports, but much more commonly they are the results of 

 irritation propagated from some disordered organ to the brain or spinal 

 cord, and thence reflected through the motor nerves of the muscles 

 in which the spasm occurs. Hence probably the I: id the 



aggravation of cramps, and other more important spasmodic affections, 

 lie digestive organs are disordered, the dependence of a variety 

 of spasms or convulsions on the irritation of teething, &c. Much less, 

 however, is known of the nature of spasm in general thon of the best 

 methods of treating it, and of the effects which it produces in the 

 several organs which it affects. These are treated of in the articles 

 AXMNA I'HIOKIS; AuTisrASMODics ; ASTHMA ; COLIC ; CONVULSIONS; 

 EPILEIV i iioniA ; TETANUS, Ac. 



SPEAK Hi:. : \T.] 



SI-HAKIM: MACHINE. Various attempts have been made to 

 imitate the human voice by means of a machine. In 1/7'.', the. 

 Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg proposed, as one of their prize 

 questions, on inquiry into the nature of the vowel sounds, and the 

 construction of an instrument for imitating them. The prizo was 

 awarded to M. Krat/.enstein ('Journal de Physique,' xxi ), and his prin- 

 ciple consisted in the adaptation of a free reed, in all respects similar 

 to that represented under HAKMONII'M, to a set of pipes of p> 

 forms, determined by repeated trials. About the same ante, M Kempe- 

 len, of Vienna, best known for hi* ingenious fraud, the 

 automaton chess-player, succeeded in producing the vow. 

 adapting a reed to the bottom of a roitnel-flhaped cavity, and , 

 his hand in various positions within the funnel. He also contrived a 



