Automatism 

 Balance 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



public house, delighting the rustics with his 

 wonderful stories, and indulging to his 

 heart's content in the unlimited beer which 

 the publican was only too glad to allow 

 him. When, on the other hand, the subject 

 of a strong hereditary alcoholic craving 

 maintains a daily conflict with his tempter, 

 uses every means he can think of to avoid 

 or weaken its seductions, puts forth all his 

 energy in resisting them, and, through occa- 

 sional failures, comes off on the whole vic- 

 torious, the consistent automatist can have 

 no other approbation to bestow upon him 

 than that which he would accord to a self- 

 governing steam-engine, or a compensation 

 balance watch. CARPENTER Mental Physi- 

 ology, pref., p. 42. (A., 1900.) 



297. AUTOMATON THEORY AN IM- 

 PERTINENCE My conclusion is that to 

 urge the automaton theory upon us, as it is 

 now urged, on purely a priori and quasi- 

 metaphysical grounds, is an unwarrantable 

 impertinence in the present state of psy- 

 chology. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 5, p. 

 138. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



298. AVALANCHE OF STONES 



Abasing That Which Is High Ceaseless 

 Leveling Action of Denuding Forces. By 

 this action the hardest and most solid rock- 

 masses are reduced to a state of complete 

 disintegration, certain of their ingredients 

 undergoing decomposition, and the cement- 

 ing materials which hold their particles 

 together being removed in a state of solu- 

 tion. In the higher regions of the atmos- 

 phere this work of rock-disintegration pro- 

 ceeds with the greatest rapidity; for there 

 the chemical action is reenforced by the 

 powerful mechanical action of freezing 

 water. On high mountain peaks the work 

 of breaking up rock-masses goes on at the 

 most rapid rate, and every craggy pinnacle 

 is swathed by the heaps of fragments which 

 have fallen from it. The Alpine traveler 

 justly dreads the continual fusillade of fall- 

 ing rock- fragments which is kept up by the 

 ever-active power of the frost in these 

 higher regions of the atmosphere; and 

 fears lest the vibrations of his footsteps 

 should loosen, from their position of pre- 

 carious rest, the rapidly accumulating piles 

 of detritus. No mountain peak attains to 

 any very great elevation above the earth's 

 surface, for the higher we rise in the at- 

 mosphere the greater is the range of tem- 

 perature and the more destructive are the 

 effects of the atmospheric water. JUDD 

 Volcanoes, ch. 10, p. 283. (A., 1899.) 



299. Mountainside Raked 



as by Cannon-shot. While we stood ponder- 

 ing here [on the side of the Weisshorn], a 

 deep and confused roar attracted our atten- 

 tion. From a point near the summit of the 

 Weisshorn a rock had been discharged down 

 a dry couloir, raising a cloud of dust at each 

 bump against the mountain. A hundred simi- 



lar ones were immediately in motion, while 

 the spaces between the larger masses were 

 filled by an innumerable flight of smaller 

 stones. Each of them shook its quantum of 

 dust in the air, until finally the avalanche 

 was enveloped in a cloud. The clatter was 

 stunning, for the collisions were incessant. 

 Black masses of rock emerged here and 

 there from the cloud, and sped through the 

 air like flying fiends. Their motion was not 

 one of translation merely, but they whizzed 

 and vibrated in their flight as if urged by 

 wings. The echoes resounded from side to 

 side, from the Schallenberg to the Weiss- 

 horn and back, until finally, after many a 

 deep-sounding thud in the snow, the whole 

 troop came to rest at the bottom of the 

 mountain. This stone avalanche was one of 

 the most extraordinary things I had ever 

 witnessed, and in connection w r ith it I would 

 draw the attention of future climbers of the 

 Weisshorn to the danger which would in- 

 fallibly beset any attempt to ascend it from 

 this side, except by one of its aretes. At 

 any moment the mountainside may be raked 

 by a fire as deadly as that of cannon. 

 TYNDAIX Hours of Exercise in the Alps, ch. 

 9, p. 110. (A., 1898.) 



300. AWAKENING DETERMINED BY 

 INTEREST Hearing of One's Own Name. 

 The awakening power of sensory impres- 

 sions is greatly modified by our habitual 

 state of mind in regard to them. Thus 

 most sleepers are awoke by the sound of 

 their own names uttered in a low tone, 

 when it requires a much louder sound of 

 a different description to produce any mani- 

 festation of consciousness. The same thing 

 is seen in comatose states, a patient being 

 often found capable of being momentarily 

 aroused by shouting his name into his ear, 

 when no other sound produces the least 

 effect. CARPENTER Mental Physiology, bk. 

 ii, ch. 15, p. 581. (A., 1900.) 



301. AWAKENING DUE TO EXPECT- 

 ANT ATTENTION But it is not requi- 

 site that the sensory impression should be 

 one habitually attended to during the wak- 

 ing hours, for it is generally sufficient to 

 produce the effect, that the attention should 

 have been strongly fixed upon it, previously 

 to the access of the sleep, as one at which 

 the slumberer is to be aroused. Thus the 

 traveler who requires to set forth upon his 

 journey at an early hour in the morning, 

 and has given directions to be called accord- 

 ingly, is awakened by a gentle tap at the 

 door of his chamber, altho he may have 

 previously slept through a succession of far 

 louder noises with which he had no concern. 

 CARPENTER Mental Physiology, bk. ii, ch. 

 15, p. 583. (A., 1900.) 



302. AX, THE CHIEF WEAPON OF 

 PRIMITIVE MAN Labor and Skill in Mak- 

 ing of Axes from Stone. The ax was pre- 

 eminently the implement of antiquity. It 

 was used in war and in the chase, as well 





