43 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Apes 

 Architecture 



extent satisfied. TYNDALL Lectures on 

 Light, lect. 4. p. 124. (A., 1898.) 



217. APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE 

 FOLLOWS ACQUISITION Sense of Igno- 

 rance Desire to Know. Without a sense 

 of ignorance there could be no desire of 

 knowledge, and without his desire of knowl- 

 edge man would not be man. His whole 

 place in nature depends upon it. His curi- 

 osity, and his wonder, and his admiration, 

 and his awe these are all but the adjuncts 

 and subsidiary allies of that supreme affec- 

 tion which incites him to inquire and know. 

 Nor is this desire capable of being resolved 

 into his tendency to seek for an increased 

 command over the comforts and conve- 

 niences of life. It is wholly independent of 

 that kind of value which consists in the 

 physical utility of things. The application 

 of knowledge comes after the acquisition of 

 it, and is not the only, or even the most 

 powerful, inducement to its pursuit. The 

 real incitement is an innate appetite of the 

 mind conscious in various degrees of the 

 mystery, and of the beauty, and of the maj- 

 esty of the system in which it lives and 

 moves; conscious, too, that its own rela- 

 tions to that system are but dimly seen 

 and very imperfectly understood. ARGYLL 

 Unity of Nature, ch. 9, p. 188. (Burt.) 



218. APPROXIMATIONS, GRADUAL, 

 TO SCIENTIFIC TRUTH Ancient Errors. 

 The history of the contemplation of the 

 universe, as I interpret its limits, desig- 

 nates not so much the frequently recurring 

 oscillations between truth and error as the 

 principal epochs of the gradual approxima- 

 tion to more accurate views regarding ter- 

 restrial forces and the planetary system. 

 It shows us that the Pythagoreans . . . 

 taught the progressive movement of the 

 non- rotating earth, its revolution round the 

 focus of the world (the central fire, hestia), 

 while Plato and Aristotle imagined that 

 the earth neither rotated nor advanced in 

 space, but that, fixed to one central point, 

 it merely oscillated from side to side. 

 Aristarchus of Samos, and more particu- 

 larly Seleucus of Babylon, who lived one 

 hundred and fifty years after Alexander, 

 first arrived at the knowledge that the 

 earth not only rotated on its own axis, but 

 also moved round the sun as the center of 

 the whole planetary system. And if, in the 

 dark period of the middle ages, Christian 

 fanaticism, and the lingering influence of 

 the Ptolemaic school, revived a belief in the 

 immobility of the earth, ... it must 

 not be forgotten that a German cardinal, 

 Nicholas de Cuss, was the first who had the 

 courage and the independence of mind 

 again to ascribe to our planet, almost a 

 hundred years before Copernicus, both rota- 

 tion on its axis and translation in space. 

 After Copernicus, the doctrines of Tycho 

 Brahe gave a retrograde movement to 

 science, altho this was only of short dura- 

 tion; and when once a large mass of accu- 



rate observations had been collected, to 

 which Tycho Brahe himself contributed 

 largely, a correct view of the structure of 

 the universe could not fail to be speedily 

 established. A period of fluctuations be- 

 tween truth and error is especially one of 

 presentiments and fanciful hypotheses re- 

 garding natural philosophy. HUMBOLDT 

 Cosmos, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 109. (H., 1897.) 



219. ARABS PRESERVED GREEK 

 LEARNING Value of Their translations. 

 The repugnance entertained by all the ad 

 herents of Isl'amism toward anatomical in- 

 vestigations impeded their advance in 

 zoology. They remained contented with that 

 which they were able to appropriate to 

 themselves from translations of the works 

 of Aristotle and Galen. . . . The Arabs 

 have served as a uniting link between an- 

 cient and modern science. If it had not 

 been for them and their love of translation, 

 a great portion of that which the Greeks 

 had either formed themselves, or derived 

 from other . nations, would have been lost 

 to succeeding ages. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, 

 vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 214, 216. (H., 1897.) 



220. ARCHITECTS, MICROSCOPIC 



Chalk Cliffs Built by Minute Organisms. 

 The great chalk cliffs that are found on the 

 coasts of the English Channel are the work 

 of a sea-animal microscopic in size. At one 

 time it was a question among scientists 

 how these chalk cliffs were formed, but 

 when the microscope was invented this mys- 

 tery, as well as many others, was solved. 

 The chemical components of chalk are pre- 

 cisely the same as those of limestone. The 

 microscope shows that chalk is almost 

 wholly a product of very small organized 

 shells. The animals who are the architects 

 of the chalk cliffs are called "foraminif- 

 era " bearing shells perforated with little 

 holes. The chief difference between chalk 

 and limestone seems to be in the size of the 

 shells of which they are respectively made 

 up and in the manner of the bonding of 

 these shells together. The shells in a lump 

 of chalk are held much more loosely than 

 those in a lump of limestone. These in- 

 trepid workers are still actively changing 

 the structure of the bottoms of seas and 

 oceans, and forming new islands, which in 

 turn become the substructure that supports 

 new life, animal and vegetable. And when 

 we consider the great part performed by 

 these microscopic architects and builders it 

 is not a misnomer to speak of the building 

 of a world. ELISHA GRAY Nature's Mir- 

 acles, vol. i, ch. 2, p. 20. (F. H. & H., 

 1900.) 



221. ARCHITECTURE AMONG IN- 

 SECTS Ants Adapt Their Homes to Conve- 

 nience and Comfort. The chief feature of 

 ant architecture, in contradistinction to 

 that of bees and wasps, is the irregularity, 

 the want of uniformity, that is to say, its 

 adaptability, or the capacity of making all 



