Icohol 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



26 



with a lower boiling-point than its predeces- 

 sor in the process, and all troublesome and 

 hazardous in manipulation. A better 

 method has been developed by keeping to 

 simple air from first to last. In the Trip- 

 ler machine air is first compressed to 65 

 pounds pressure to the square inch; 

 through a second pump this pressure is 

 exalted to 400 pounds, and with a third 

 pump the pressure is carried to 2,500 

 pounds. After each compression the air 

 flows through jacketed pipes, where it is 

 cooled by a stream of water. At the third 

 condensation a valve, the secret of whose 

 construction Mr. Tripler keeps to himself, 

 permits part of the compressed air to flow 

 into a pipe surrounding the tube through 

 which the remainder is flowing. This act of 

 expansion severely chills the imprisoned air, 

 which at last discharges itself in liquid 

 form much as water does from an ordi- 

 nary city faucet. ILES Flame, Electricity, 

 and the Camera, ch. 6, p. 72. (D. & McC., 

 1900.) 



129. AIR, MAN'S DEPENDENCE UPON 



Bad Air Cannot Always Be Rejected. 

 Solicitude with regard to the hostile influ- 

 ences contained within our mixture of air is 

 gradually becoming greater. We are con- 

 scious of the 9,000 liters of air we 

 are daily consuming; we might almost 

 grow disheartened before the avowal that 

 this consumption is something compulsory, 

 uninterrupted; that we cannot refuse 

 spoiled air as we can any doubtful, disgust- 

 ing article of food; that it is not in our 

 power to wait for hours, or even several 

 minutes, until better air can be furnished. 

 Breathe or die, there can be no haggling. 

 WEBNICH Veber gute und schlechte Luft, 

 lect. A lecture. (Translated for Scientific 

 Side-Lights. ) 



130. AIR, PURIFIED, PUTREFAC- 

 TION IMPOSSIBLE INTyndall's Glycerin- 

 coated Cabinet. A few years after Pas- 

 teur's first work on this subject Tyn- 

 dall (1868) conceived a precise method 

 of determining the absence or presence 

 of dust particles in the air by passing 

 a beam of sunlight through a glass 

 box before and after its walls had been 

 coated with glycerin. Into the floor of the 

 box were fixed the mouths of flasks of infu- 

 sion. These were boiled, after which they 

 were allowed to cool, and might then be 

 Icept for weeks or months without putrefy- 

 ing or revealing the presence of germ life. 

 Here all the conditions of the infusions were 

 natural, except that in the air above them 

 there was no dust. The sum-total of result 

 arising from all these investigations was to 

 the effect that no spontaneous generation 

 was possible, that the atmosphere contained 

 unseen germs of life, that the smallest of 

 organisms responded to the law of gravita- 

 tion and adhered to moist surfaces, and that 

 micro-organisms were in some way or other 



the cause of putrefaction. NEWMAN Bac- 

 teria, ch. 1, p. 4. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



131. ALCOHOL A" POISON Destroys 

 the Life That Produced It Necessary Limit 

 to Strength of Fermented Liquors. We 

 shall have to consider a remarkable faculty 

 which some bacteria possess of producing 

 products inimical to their own growth. In 

 some degree this is true of the yeasts, for 

 when they have set up fermentation in a 

 saccharine fluid there comes a time when the 

 presence of the resulting alcohol is injurious 

 to further action on their part. It has be- 

 come indeed a poison, and, as we have al- 

 ready mentioned, a necessary condition for 

 the action of a ferment is the absence of 

 poisonous substances. This limit of fer- 

 mentation is reached when the fermenting 

 fluid contains 13 or 14 per cent, of alcohol. 

 NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 4, p. 119. (G. P. 

 P., 1899.) 



132. ALCOHOL DESTROYS VOLITION 



Confirmed Alcoholism Power and Re- 

 sponsibility in Early Stages. It may be 

 confidently stated as a result of universal 

 experience that our "capacity of willing," 

 that is, of giving a preponderance to the 

 motive on which we elect to act, depends, 

 first, upon our conviction that we really 

 have such a self-determinirtg power, and, 

 secondly, upon our habitual exercise of it. 

 The case, which is unfortunately but too 

 common, of a man who habitually gives way 

 to the desire for alcoholic excitement, and 

 is ruining himself and his family by his 

 self-abandonment, will bring into distinct 

 view the practical bearing of the antago- 

 nistic doctrines. 



The automatism of his nature (purely 

 physical so far as the bodily craving for 

 alcohol is concerned, but including, in most 

 cases, some play of social instincts) fur- 

 nishes an aggregate of powerful attractions 

 to the present gratification. On the other 

 side is an aggregate of moral deterrents, 

 which, when the attention is fixed upon 

 them in the absence of the attractive object, 

 have a decided preponderance, so far as the 

 desires are concerned. The slave of intem- 

 perance is often ready to cry out, " O 

 wretched man that I am, who shall deliver 

 me from the body of this ^ death?" and 

 he proves his sincerity by his readiness to 

 take every indirect precaution that does not 

 interfere with his personal liberty. But when 

 the temptation recurs, the force of the at- 

 traction is intensified by its actual pres- 

 ence; the direct sensory presentation makes 

 a more vivid impression than the ideal rep- 

 resentation of the deterrent motives; and 

 the balance, which previously turned against 

 the indulgence, now preponderates in favor 

 of it. What, then, is it within the power 

 of the ego to do? On the automatist 

 theory, nothing. For not only is he unable 

 to call to his aid any motive which does not 

 spontaneously arise, but he cannot make 

 any alteration in the relative strength of 



