722 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



Respiration. A function proper to ani- 

 mals, tne object of which is, to place the ma- 

 terials of the blood the mixture of the venous 

 blood with lymph and chyle in contact with 

 atmospheric air, in order that it may acquire 

 the vivifying qualities which belong to arterial 

 blood. The organs for executing this function 

 are, in the mammalia, birds, and reptiles, the 

 lun<i$. In man, the respiration consists of me- 

 chanical and chemical phenomena. The me- 

 chanical are inspiration and expiration. The 

 evident chemical phenomena consist in the for- 

 mation of a certain quantity of carbonic acid, 

 the absorption of a part of the oxygen of the air, 

 and the disengagement of a quantity of water 

 in the state of vapor. In the healthy condition 

 the respiration is easy, gentle, regular, and with- 

 out noise. In man, the respirations are gen- 

 erally about thirty-five per minute in the first 

 year of life; twenty-five during the second; 

 twenty at puberty; "and eighteen in the adult 

 age during which time he inhales about eigh- 

 teen pints of air. The air drawn in and expelled 

 by the lungs in respiration is called breath. 



Salvation Army, The. The Salvation 

 Army is a missionary organization set on foot 

 in England by William Booth, who was called 

 the "General " of the army. The plan of opera- 

 tion is for a company to march about cities, 

 towns, and villages, singing popular sacred 

 songs and speaking between whiles for about 

 five minutes. The army has also a large num- 

 ber of religious periodicals and small books. 

 Mr. Booth was a minister of the Methodist New 

 Connexion, which he left in 1861, to begin "re- 

 vivalistic services" in a tent in Whitechapel. 

 In 1865, his little band of followers called them- 

 selves "The East London Christian Revival 

 Society," afterwards changed to "The Christian 

 Mission." In 1869, the Mission made expedi- 

 tions to provincial towns. Lastly in 1873, the 

 name was changed to "The Salvation Army." 

 Its literary organ, called "The Christian Mis- 

 sion," first appeared monthly in 1874. In 1879, 

 it was called "The Salvationist," and in the 

 same year its title was changed into "The War 

 Cry." Its flag now flies in fifty-one countries 

 or colonies, where, under the charge of 20,000 

 officers and employees, with 46,000 local officers, 

 and about 50,000 musicians. The army has 

 sixty-three weekly newspapers and magazines, 

 with a total weekly circulation of 1,300,000, 

 and published in twenty-four languages. 



Sciences. The name for such portions of 

 human knowledge as have been more or less 

 generalized, systematized, and verified. The 

 term "Philosophy" is to a certain extent, but 

 not altogether, coincident with science, being 

 applied to the early efforts and strainings after 

 the explanation of the universe, that preceded 

 exact science in any department. Botn names 

 denote the pursuit of knowledge as knowledge, 

 or for intellectual satisfaction, in contra-) to 

 the search that is limited to immediate practice 

 or utility. 



The sciences have been variously classified, 

 and the principles of their classification have 

 been a subject of discussion. We shall here de- 

 scribe the mode of classifying them in accord- 

 ance with present usage, and with the principles 



most generally agreed upon. It is convenient 

 to prepare the way by distinguishing bet \veen 

 Theoretical Sciences, which are the sciences 

 properly so called, and Practical Science. A 

 Theoretical Science embraces a distinct depart- 

 ment of nature, and is so arranged as to give. 

 in the most compact form, the entire body of 

 ascertained (scientific) knowledge in that 'de- 

 partment: such are mathematics, chemistry, 

 physiology, zoology. A practical science is the 

 application of scientifically obtained tacts and 

 laws in one or more departments to some prac- 

 tical end, which end rules the selection and 

 arrangement of the whole; as, for example, 

 navigation, engineering, mining, medicine. Nav- 

 igation selects from tne theoretical sciences 

 mathematics, astronomy, optics, meteorology. 

 etc. whatever is available for guiding a ship 

 on the seas, and converts the knowledge into 

 rules or prescriptions for that purpose. The 

 arts that can thus draw upon the exact sciences 

 are by so much the more certain in their opera- 

 tions; they are the scientific arts. 



Another distinction must be made before 

 laying down the systematic order of the theo- 

 retical sciences. A certain number of these 

 sciences have for their subject matter each a 

 separate department of natural forces or powers; 

 thus, biology deals with the department of 

 organized beings, psychology with mind. Others 

 deal with the application of powers elsewhere 

 recognized to some region of concrete facts or 

 phenomena. Thus, geology does not discuss 

 any natural powers not found in other sciences, 

 but seeks to apply the laws of physics, chem- 

 istry, and biology to account for the appear- 

 ances of the earth's crust. The sciences that 

 embrace peculiar natural powers are called 

 abstract, general, or fundamental sciences; 

 those that apply the powers treated of under 

 these to regions of concrete phenomena are 

 called concrete, derived, or applied sciences. 



The abstract or theoretical sciences, as most 

 commonly recognized, are these six: mathe- 

 matics, physics, chemistry, biology (vegetable 

 and animal physiology), psychology (mind), 

 sociology (society). The concrete sciences are 

 the natural history group meteorology, min- 

 eralogy, botany, zoology, geology, also geog- 

 raphy, and we might, with some explanations, 

 aoM astronomy. The abstract or fundamental 

 sciences have a definite sequence, determining 

 the proper order for the learner, and also the 

 order of their arriving at perfection. We pro- 

 ceed from the simple to the complex, from the 

 independent to the dependent. Thus, mathe- 

 matics relates to quantity, the most pervading, 

 simple, fundamental, and independent attribute 

 of the universe. The consideration of this at- 

 tribute has therefore a natural priority; its 

 laws underlie all other laws. As mathematics 

 is at present understood, it has an abstract de- 

 partment, which treats of quantity in its mo<t 

 general form, or as applied to nothing in particu- 

 lar including arithmetic, algebra, and the 

 calculus and a concrete or applied depart- 

 ment viz : geometry, or quantity in space or 

 extension. It has been suggested that general 

 mechanics, or the estimation of quantity in 

 force, should be considered a second concrete 



