SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



various departments. An examination of the Index of Authors will show how 

 high is the standing of the writers from whom the quotations are made, and a 

 study of the selections will show how simple and lucid are their expositions of 

 scientific truth. The reader cannot fail to be impressed also with the ex- 

 exceeding felicity of language, the beautiful descriptions of natural scenery, 

 the sympathy with all the grandeur and beauty of Nature, and the wide out- 

 reach of thought and aspiration with which these extracts abound. 



For each selection a number of topics for illustrative use are commonly 

 suggested in the headlines, while still others are indicated in the various in- 

 dexes ; but so multiform are the relations of scientific truth to all other truth, 

 that the thoughtful reader will constantly perceive new uses and adaptations 

 of the same scientific fact. This suggestiveness of these extracts, reaching 

 beyond anything that can be specified in set phrases, will be found among 

 the most valuable qualities of this collection. While each selection is com- 

 plete in itself and ready for immediate use, without reference to any other 

 work, it will be found also of value as a guide to the sources from which 

 other material of interest and value may be obtained ; for these extracts, 

 tho most carefully made, are yet but specimens of the riches to be found 

 in the various works from which they are taken. The student will almost 

 certainly find himself impelled to seek a fuller knowledge of some at least of 

 the subjects presented in the volumes themselves of which these extracts form 

 a, part. 



In the choice of authors to be quoted, the editor has been guided, not 

 merely by his own opinion, but by the valued advice of eminent scholars, as 

 Marcus Benjamin, A.M., Ph.D, F.C.S., Editor U. S. Nat. Museum, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. ; Arthur Elmore Bostwick, Ph.D., New York Public Library, 

 New York City; Professor Charles 'Sunnier Dolley, M.D., Philadelphia, Pa. ; 

 Professor Albert Smith Bickmore, Ph.D., American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, New York; Louis Pope Gratacap, Ph.B., American Museum of Natural 

 History, New York; Professor Frank Hall Knowlton, Ph.D., U. S. Nat. 

 Museum, Washington; Professor George Perkins Merrill, Ph.D.,U. S. Nat. 

 Museum, Washington, D. C. ; Professor Theophil Mitchell Prudden, M.D., 

 LL.D., Columbia University; Prof essor Frederick Starr, Ph.D., University of 

 Chicago; Isaac Kauffman Funk, D.D., LL.D., Editor in Chief of Funk & 

 Wagnalls STANDARD DICTIONARY, New York ; Professor Edward Richard 

 Shaw, Ph.D., New York University; Henry Newlin Stokes, Ph.D., 

 U. S. Geol. Survey, Pepartment of the Interior, Washington, D. C. ; Professor 

 Nathaniel Southgate Shaler, D.S., Harvard University whose aid it is a 

 pleasure here gratefully to acknowledge. 



In the translation of extracts from foreign authors, Mrs. J. H. W. Stuck- 

 enberg, of Cambridge, Mass. , has rendered admirable service. 



A special debt of gratitude is due to authors who have granted the use of 

 their copyrightvolumes or have furnished important monographs for quotation 

 in this work, among whom should be particularly mentioned : the late John 

 Fiske, LL.B. ; Samuel Pierpont Langley, D.Sc., LL.D.; Professor William 

 James, M.D., Ph. et. Litt.D., LL.D.; Professor Hugo Munsterberg, M.D., 

 Ph.D.; Park Benjamin, Ph. D. ; Otis Tuf ton Mason, Ph.D.; Israel C. Russell, 

 M.S., LL.D.; Theodore Gill, M.D., Ph.D.; William James Beal, M.S., 

 Ph.D.; William Keith Brooks, Ph.D., LL.D.; Clarence Moores Weed, 

 Sc.D. ; Henry Newlin Stokes, Ph.D. ; Harvey W. Wiley, Ph.D., LL.D. ; Hon. 

 William Torrey Harris, Ph.D., LL.D., United States Commissioner of Educa- 

 tion; andLeland Ossian Howard, Ph.D., Chief of the Division of Entomology, 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, who sent advance proofs of 

 his valuable article on Smyrna Fig Culture in the United States. 



The editor would also present his grateful acknowledgments to the pub- 

 lishers whose volumes of scientific facts and researches he has been privileged 



