216 THE SEVEN FOLLIES OF SCIENCE 



opticians to shape pieces of glass into lenses in the turning 

 lathe just as they would shape a piece of iron or steel. 

 An ordinarily hard steel graver will cut glass as if the 

 latter were cheese, and a bit of fine glass may soon be 

 brought so nearly to the proper curve that it will require 

 merely a little polishing to make a good magnifier. I have 

 three or four lenses which were thus made and which are 

 very convenient and serviceable. 



It has been argued that glass must be hard because it 

 is so brittle. But sugar is quite as brittle and it is cer- 

 tainly very much softer. Hardness and brittleness have 

 no necessary relation to each other, although substances 

 which by the usual process of hardening are made as 

 hard as possible frequently become very brittle. This is 

 true of steel and glass, both of which when unannealed 

 are harder than usual and very brittle. But even the 

 most brittle glass is comparatively soft. 



If our advertising friends would say "as smooth as glass " 

 their claims would probably be much more attractive and 

 certainly far more accurate. Their goods being made of 

 hardened steel are far harder than any glass that ever 

 was produced. 



THAT FRANKENSTEIN WAS A MONSTER 



HIS atrocious literary blunder has become so 

 common and has been so frequently accepted 

 as true by writers of notable reputation that a 

 correspondent of one of our literary journals 

 actually defended the use of the expression, "the 

 monster Frankenstein," on the ground that the idea had 

 now become part of the mental furniture of the majority 



