25 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Agnosticism 



Ifr" 



farm tilled wholly by means of stable ma- 

 nure was like a life-annuity it was using 

 up his capital. LIEBIG Addresse vor der 

 offentlichcn Sitzung der koniglichen Aka- 

 demie der Wissenschaften, Munich, 1861. 

 (Translated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



121. AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE, 

 PRIMITIVE Lake-dwellers of Switzerland. 

 The lake-inhabitants of Switzerland culti- 

 vated several kinds of wheat and barley, the 

 pea, the poppy for oil and flax; and they 

 possessed several domesticated animals. 

 They also carried on commerce with other 

 nations. DARWIN Origin of Species, ch. 1, 

 p. 16. (Burt.) 



122. AGRICULTURE AN EARLY IN- 

 VENTION Beginnings of, among Savages- 

 Purpose, Industry, and Settled Life Re- 

 quired. Man, even while he feeds himself 

 as the lower animals do, by gathering wild 

 fruit and catching game and fish, is led by 

 his higher intelligence to more artificial 

 means of getting these. Rising to the next 

 stage, he begins to grow supplies of food for 

 himself. Agriculture is not to be looked on 

 as a difficult or out-of-the-way invention, for 

 the rudest savage, skilled as he is in the 

 habits of the food-plants he gathers, must 

 know well enough that if seeds or roots are 

 put in a proper place in the ground they 

 will grow. Thus it is hardly through igno- 

 rance, but rather from roving life, bad 

 climate, or sheer idleness, that so many 

 tribes gather what nature gives, but plant 

 nothing. Even very rude people, when they 

 live on one spot all the year round, and the 

 climate and soil are favorable, mostly plant 

 a little, like the Indians of Brazil, who clear 

 a patch of forest round their huts to grow 

 a supply of maize, cassava, bananas, and 

 cotton. TYLOR Anthropology, ch. 9, p. 214. 

 (A., 1899.) 



123. AGRICULTURE, PRIMITIVE, OF 

 NORTH AMERICA Aw Original Product- 

 Maize. But American agriculture was not 

 imported from abroad; it resulted from, 

 and in return rendered possible, the gradual 

 development of American semi-civilization. 

 This is proved by the fact that the grains of 

 the Old World were entirely absent, and 

 that American agriculture was founded on 

 the maize, an American plant. AVEBURY 

 Prehistoric Times, ch. 8, p. 264. (A., 1900.) 



124. AGRICULTURE, PRIMITIVE, WO- 

 MAN'S WORK IN A company of Cocopa 

 or Mohave or Pima women set forth to a 

 rich and favored spot on the side of a canon 

 or rocky steep. They are guarded by a suffi- 

 cient number of men from capture or mol- 

 estation. Each woman has a little bag of 

 gourd-seed, and when the company reach 

 their destination she proceeds to plant the 

 seeds one by one in a rich cranny or crevice 

 where the roots may have opportunity to 

 hold, the sun may shine in, and the vines 

 with their fruit may swing down as from 

 a trellis. The planters then go home and 



take no further notice of their vines until 

 they return in the autumn to gather the 

 gourds. This is the testimony of E. Palmer, 

 who spent many years as a collector among 

 the American aborigines. Seed-time and 

 harvest: no preparation of the soil, no 

 tending of the young plants; ingathering, 

 that is all. MASON Origins of Invention, 

 ch. 6, p. 192. (S., 1899.) 



125. AGRICULTURE, THE FIRST OF 

 ALL IMPLEMENTS IN After all has 

 been said about other devices, the digging- 

 stick is the beginning of agricultural imple- 

 ments, the progenitor of the hoe, the spade, 

 the plow. It would be difficult to find a 

 tribe so low down as not to know its use. 

 MASON Origins of Invention, ch. 6, p. 190. 

 (S., 1899.) 



126. AGRICULTURE THE FOUNDA- 

 TION OF CIVILIZATIpN All civilization 

 is the outgrowth of strivings which go be- 

 yond momentary physical needs ; and there- 

 fore until agriculture affords a firm founda- 

 tion for subsistence, until life is by the soil 

 made something more than a struggle for 

 momentary support, the foundations of cul- 

 ture cannot be obtained. SHALER Nature 

 and Man in America, ch. 5, p. 170. (S., 

 1899.) 



127. AIR, EXCLUSION OF, QUENCH- 

 ES FIRE Danger of Flight with Burning 

 Garments Invisible Food of Combustion. 

 The flame of an ordinary lantern or lamp, 

 where a chimney is employed, would not 

 burn more than a few minutes if holes were 

 not provided at the base for the ingress of 

 air. But for the occasional application of 

 the poker, the combustion of a common fire 

 would be maintained with difficulty, or pre- 

 maturely put an end to, for the oxygen of 

 the air must find free access to the interior 

 of the burning mass, or the chemical de- 

 compositions we are about to describe can- 

 not take place. On the same principle the 

 best way of extinguishing fire is to smother 

 it; that is, to cover it closely with some- 

 thing that will effectually cut off the source 

 of its existence. If the clothes of some un- 

 fortunate friend should happen to catch fire, 

 the best course to follow is to throw him 

 down and envelop him in a rug, blanket, or 

 anything of a similar kind within reach, 

 when the flames will be immediately ex- 

 tinguished. To run about in search of 

 water or assistance in these cases is simply 

 to give time to the flames to reach a vital 

 part of the body. LOWE Nature-Studies, 

 p. 2. (Hum., 1888.) 



128. AIR MADE LIQUID-^ Perfect 

 Refrigerant. In many of its chapters the 

 history of invention displays an advance 

 from the roundabout to the direct, as we 

 have seen in the substitution of the steam- 

 turbine for the compound engine. Recent 

 modes of refrigeration offer a like illustra- 

 tion. For some years the plan was to em- 

 ploy a series of chemical compounds, each 



