The Geometry of the Epeira's Web 



geometers, combining number and extent, at 

 will, so as to imagine a tenebrous abyss where- 

 in to practise their analytical methods after- 

 wards? Is it a mere dream in the night of 

 the intricate, an abstract riddle flung out for 

 our understanding to browse upon? 



No, it is a reality in the service of life, a 

 method of construction frequently employed 

 in animal architecture. The Mollusc, in 

 particular, never rolls the winding ramp of 

 the shell without reference to the scientific 

 curve. The first-born of the species knew it 

 and put it into practice; it was as perfect in 

 the dawn of creation as it can be to-day. 



Let us study, in this connection, the Am- 

 monites, those venerable relics of what was 

 once the highest expression of living things, at 

 the time when the solid land was taking shape 

 from the oceanic ooze. Cut and polished 

 lengthwise, the fossil shows a magnificent 

 logarithmic spiral, the general pattern of the 

 dwelling which was a pearl palace, with nu- 

 merous chambers traversed by a siphuncular 

 corridor. 



To this day, the last representative of the 

 Cephalopoda with partitioned shells, the 

 Nautilus of the Southern Seas, remains faith? 

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