29 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Alcoholism 

 Alphabet 



the moment, and with a multitude of inde- 

 finable circumstances. It is on the average 

 Mess than 7% grams; less, therefore, than 

 the amount ~ of alcohol in half a glass 

 of port, in one-tenth of a liter of Mere 

 d'ale; very much less, therefore, than 

 the quantity in which alcohol is habitually 

 consumed. As soon as the dose is increased 

 there is abuse, and the occasions for abuse 

 are not wanting. Action appears heavy im- 

 mediately, and the alcohol leaves traces of 

 its passage in the nervous centers. BOECK 

 The Influence of Alcoholic Liquors on Men- 

 tal Work. (Translation, Journal of Ine- 

 briety, Jan., 1901.) 



143. ALLEVIATION OF HUMAN MIS- 

 ERY Practical Result of Science. And thus 

 mankind will have one more admonition 

 that "the people perish for lack of knowl- 

 edge " ; and that the alleviation of the 

 miseries, and the promotion of the welfare 

 of men, must be sought, by those who will 

 not lose their pains, in that diligent, pa- 

 tient, loving study of all the multitudinous 

 aspects of nature, the results of which con- 

 stitute exact knowledge, or science. HUXLEY 

 Lay Sermons, serm. 15, p. 378. (A., 1895.) 



144. ALLIANCE OF SCIENCES As- 

 tronomy No Longer Isolated Sciences 

 Merging in Unity of Nature. The estab- 

 lishment of the new method of spectrum 

 analysis drew far closer this alliance be- 

 tween celestial and terrestrial science. In- 

 deed, they have come to merge so intimately 

 one into the other that it is no easier to 

 trace their respective boundaries than it is 

 to draw a clear dividing-line between the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms. Yet up to 

 the middle of the present century astron- 

 omy, while maintaining her strict union 

 with mathematics, looked with indifference 

 on the rest of the sciences; it was enough 

 that she possessed the telescope and the 

 calculus. Now the materials for her induc- 

 tions are supplied by the chemist, the elec- 

 trician, the inquirer into the most recondite 

 mysteries of light and the molecular con- 

 stitution of matter. She is concerned with 

 what the geologist, the meteorologist, even 

 the biologist, has to say; she can afford to 

 close her ears to no new truth of the phys- 

 ical order. Her position of lofty isolation 

 has been exchanged for one of community 

 and mutual aid. The astronomer has be- 

 come, in the highest sense of the term, a 

 physicist, while the physicist is bound to be 

 something of an astronomer. CLERKE His- 

 tory of Astronomy, pt. ii, ch. 1, p. 176. (Bl., 

 1893.) 



145. ALLUREMENT BY IMITATION 



Wingless Mantis Resembles Orchis. But 

 the most curious and beautiful case of al- 

 luring protection is that of a wingless man- 

 tis in India, which is so formed and colored 

 as to resemble a pink orchis or some other 

 fantastic flower. The whole insect is of a 

 bright pink color, the large and oval ab- 

 domen looking like the labellum of an 



orchid. On each side the two posterior legs 

 have immensely dilated and flattened thighs 

 which represent the petals of a flower, while 

 the neck and forelegs imitate the upper 

 sepal and column of an orchid. The insect 

 rests motionless, in this symmetrical atti- 

 tude, among bright green foliage, being, of 

 course, very conspicuous, but so exactly re- 

 sembling a flower that butterflies and other 

 insects settle upon it and are instantly cap- 

 tured. It is a living trap, baited in the 

 most alluring manner to catch, the unwary 

 flower-haunting insects. WALLACE Dar- 

 winism, ch. 8, p. 144. (Hum., 1889.) 



146. ALMIGHTY, THE, SUN AN EM- 

 BLEM OF The Source of All Life on the 

 Earth Destruction if Sun's Light With- 

 held Fiery Death if Sun's Light Intensi- 

 fied. The sun is an emblem of the Almighty 

 in being the source whence all that lives 

 upon the earth derives support. Our very 

 existence depends on the beneficent supply 

 of light and heat poured out continually 

 upon the earth by the great central orb 

 of the planetary scheme. Let the sun for- 

 get to shine for a single day, and it would 

 be with us even as tho God had forgotten 

 our existence. . . . Myriads of crea- 

 tures now living on the earth would perish, 

 uncounted millions would suffer fearfully. 

 But let the sun's rays cease to be poured out 

 for four or five days, and every living crea- 

 ture on the earth would be destroyed. Or, 

 on the other hand, even a worse (or at least 

 more sudden and terrible) fate would be- 

 fall us if an angel of wrath " poured out his 

 vial upon the sun, and power were given 

 unto it to scorch men with fire." PROCTOR 

 Expanse of Heaven, ch. 2, p. 11. (L. G. & 

 Co., 1897.) 



147. ALMSHOUSE OF OCEAN An- 

 cient Geologic Forms Have Representatives 

 in Deep Sea. One of the most striking 

 features connected with the animals of the 

 deep sea is the frequency with which we 

 find there living species which remind us of 

 kinds which in former geologic periods 

 dwelt in the coastal districts of the oceans. 

 It seems that many of these ancient crea- 

 tures, when they no longer could hold their 

 own against the more highly organized and 

 developed animals which inhabited the fa- 

 vored stations next the shores, shrunk away 

 into the deep water, and in that undesired 

 part of the world found an asylum, where, 

 amid the changeless environment, they have 

 dwelt for ages, unaltered. Thus the vast 

 profounds of the deep have become a sort of 

 almshouse, whereunto antiquated species 

 have retired before the overwhelming pres- 

 sure which the newer and higher life ever 

 imposes. SHALER Sea and Land, p. 102. 

 (S., 1894.) 



148. ALPHABET OF GEOLOGY Evi- 

 dences of the Work of an Ancient Stream. 

 On entering it (the gorge of the Via Mala), 

 the first conclusion is that it must be a 

 fissure. This conclusion in my case was 



