37 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Animals 

 Antiquity 



man-formism, conveying the idea that it 

 is, in some sense or other, the human 

 " form " that is ascribed to the agencies 

 which are at work in nature. But this sug- 

 gestion is altogether at variance with the 

 truth. It is not the form of man that is 

 in question. It is the mind and spirit of 

 man his reason, his intelligence, and his 

 will. Nor is it even these under all the 

 conditions, or under any of the limitations, 

 with which they are associated in us. But 

 the question is of a real and fundamental 

 analogy, despite all differences of form or 

 of limiting conditions, between the mind 

 which is in us and the mind which is in 

 nature. The true etymological expression 

 for this idea, if we are to have any word 

 constructed on the same model out of Greek, 

 would be, not anthropomorphism, but an- 

 thropopsychism, which means not man- 

 formism, but man-soulism. The use of the 

 word in this construction would raise much 

 more truly the real issue. ARGYLL Unity 

 of Nature, ch. 5, p. 99. (Burt.) 



185. ANTHROPOMORPHISM AN IDLE 

 BUGBEAR All Knowledge Is Anthropomor- 

 phic Man Can Think Only as Man. There 

 is indeed one objection to this [teleological] 

 method of conception, which would be a 

 fatal objection if it could be consistently 

 maintained. But all the strength of this 

 objection lies in the obscure terrors which 

 a very long word is sometimes capable of 

 inspiring. This word is " anthropomor- 

 phism." Purpose and design, it is said, is a 

 human conception. Unquestionably it is, 

 and so is all knowledge in every form. We 

 can never stand outside ourselves. We can 

 never get behind or above our own methods 

 of conception. The human mind can know 

 nothing and can think of nothing except in 

 terms of its own capacities of thought. 

 ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 2, p. 63. (Burt.) 



186. ANTHROPOMORPHISM INVERT- 

 ED Just as the theologians tell us and 

 logically enough that if there is a divine 

 mind, the best, and indeed only, conception 

 we can form of it is that which is formed 

 on the analogy, however imperfect, supplied 

 by the human mind ; so with " inverted an- 

 thropomorphism " we must apply a similar 

 consideration with a similar conclusion to 

 the animal mind. The mental states of an 

 insect may be widely different from those 

 of a man, and yet most probably the nearest 

 conception that we can form of their true 

 nature is that which we form by assimilat- 

 ing them to the pattern of the only mental 

 states with which we are actually acquaint- 

 ed. ROMANES Animal Intelligence, int., p. 

 10. (A., 1899.) 



187. ANTICIPATIONS OF MODERN 

 METHODS Granaries, Original, of Primitive 

 Peoples. The thousand and one manipula- 

 tions at the hands of women formerly prac- 

 tised on vegetal substances preparatory to 

 consumption were all anticipatory of meth- 



ods now in operation on a grander scale. 

 They were the predecessors of harvesters, 

 wagons and freight trains, granaries and 

 elevators, mills and bakeries. The little 

 wicker basket, holding about a barrel, set 

 up in some northern California hut to pre- 

 serve acorns, the larger granaries in the Mo- 

 jave country, the pretty structures conspic- 

 uous in the pictures of African villages, are 

 all familiar now on the farm and in the 

 great grain elevators. MASON Woman's 

 Share in Primitive Culture^-ch. 2, p. 17. 

 (A., 1894.) 



188. ANTICS OF THE SCISSORS- 

 TAIL Fun-loving Birds. The performance 

 of the scissors-tail, a tyrant-bird, is re- 

 markable. This species is gray and white, 

 with black head and tail and a cro- 

 cus-yellow crest. On the wing it looks 

 like a large swallow, but with the 

 two outer tail-feathers a foot long. 

 The scissors-tails always live in pairs, but 

 at sunset several pairs assemble, the birds 

 calling excitedly to each other; they then 

 mount upwards, like rockets, to a great 

 height in the air, and, after wheeling about 

 for a few moments, precipitate themselves 

 downwards with amazing violence in a wild 

 zigzag, opening and shutting the long tail- 

 feathers like a pair of shears, and producing 

 loud whirring sounds, as of clocks being 

 wound rapidly up, with a slight pause after 

 each turn of the key. This aerial dance 

 over, they alight in separate couples on the 

 tree- tops, each couple joining in a kind of 

 duet of rapidly repeated, castanet-like 

 sounds. HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, 

 ch. 19, p. 271. (C. & H., 1895.) 



189. ANTIQUITY NOT BARBARISM 



The remarkable phase of archaic culture 

 known as Mycenaean [since its remains were 

 first recognized at the ancient Greek city of 

 Mycenae] when arms of bronze were beau- 

 tifully inlaid with gold, when gems were 

 cut, and the potter's art had attained a high 

 degree of perfection appears to have at- 

 tained its zenith about 1500 B. C. It must 

 therefore have commenced much earlier. 

 AVEBURY Prehistoric Times, ch. 1, p. 8. 

 (A., 1900.) 



190. ANTIQUITY OF ANIMAL ARCHI- 

 TECTURE Beaver-dam a Thousand Years 

 Old A Geological Survival. In one case 

 Prof. Agassiz obtained what may be termed 

 geological evidence of the truth of an opin- 

 ion advanced by Mr. Morgan, that beaver- 

 works may be hundreds if not thousands of 

 years in course of continuous formation. 

 For the purpose of obtaining a secure foun- 

 dation for a mill-dam erected above a beaver- 

 dam, it was necessary to clear away the 

 soil from the bottom of the beaver-pond. 

 This soil was found to be a peat-bog. A 

 trench was dug into the peat 12 feet wide 

 by 1,200 feet long, and 9 feet deep; all the 

 way along this trench old stumps of trees 

 were found at various depths, some still 



