SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Broth 



erhood 



. 



however, demonstrated that baking does 

 not sterilize the interior of bread. These 

 observers cultivated numerous bacteria 

 from the center of newly baked London 

 loaves. The writer has recently made a 

 series of examinations of the air of several 

 underground bakehouses in central London; 

 but, tho the air was highly impregnated 

 with flour-dust, few bacteria were present. 

 NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 6, p. 239. (G. P. 

 P., 1899.) 



406. BRIGHTNESS THAT ONLY 

 'ARKNESS AND GLOOM REVEAL Sun's 



Chromosphere and Corona Seen Only in 

 Eclipse. But what a marvelous spectacle 

 is then afforded to all eyes directed to the 

 same point of the sky! In place of the sun 

 appears a black disk, surrounded by a 

 glorious crown of light. In this ethereal 

 crown we see immense rays diverging from 

 the eclipsed sun. Rose-colored flames ap- 

 pear to issue from the lunar screen which 

 masks the god of day. During two minutes, 

 three minutes, four minutes, the astronomer 

 studies this strange frame, rendered visible 

 by the passage of the moon before the radi- 

 ant disk, while the people, surprised and 

 still silent, seem to await with anxiety the 

 end of a spectacle which they have never 

 seen before and may never see again. Sud- 

 denly a jet of light, a shout of pleasure 

 from a thousand throats, announces the re- 

 turn of the joyous sun, still pure, still 

 luminous, still fiery, still faithful. FLAM- 

 MARION Popular Astronomy, bk. ii, ch. 9, p. 

 197. (A.) 



407. BRILLIANCY A MEANS OF CON- 

 CEALMENT The White-headed Fruit-pigeon. 

 In some cases the concealment is effected 

 by colors and markings which are so strik- 

 ing and peculiar that no one who had not 

 seen the creature in its native haunts would 

 imagine them to be protective. An ex- 

 ample of this is afforded by the banded fruit- 

 pigeon of Timor, whose pure white head and 

 neck, black wings and back, yellow belly, 

 and deeply curved black band across the 

 breast, render it a very handsome and con- 

 spicuous bird. Yet this is what Mr. H. O. 

 Forbes says of it : " On the trees the white- 

 headed fruit-pigeon (Ptilopus cinctus) sat 

 motionless during the heat of the day in 

 numbers, on well-exposed branches; but it 

 was with the utmost difficulty that I or my 

 sharp-eyed native servant could ever detect 

 them, even in trees where we knew they 

 were sitting." The trees referred to are 

 species of Eucalyptus which abound in 

 Timor. They have whitish or yellowish 

 bark and very open foliage, and it is the in- 

 tense sunlight casting black curved shadows 

 of one branch upon another, with the white 

 and yellow bark and deep blue sky seen 

 through openings of the foliage, that pro- 

 duces the peculiar combination of colors and 

 shadows to which the colors and markings 



of this bird have become so closely assimi- 

 lated. WALLACE Darwinism, ch. 8, p. 136. 

 (Hum., 1889.) 



408. BRILLIANCY OF COLOR CHAR- 

 ACTERIZES MALE BIRDS Mothers Com- 

 monly Protected by Modest Colors. The 

 most fundamental characteristic of birds, 

 from our present point of view, is a 

 greater intensity of color in the male. 

 . . . In order that the species may be 

 continued, young birds must be produced, 

 and the female birds have to sfif assiduously 

 on their eggs. While doing this they are 

 exposed to observation and attack by the 

 numerous devourers of eggs and birds, and 

 it is of vital importance that they should 

 be protectively colored in all those parts of 

 the body which are exposed during incuba- 

 tion. To secure this end all the bright 

 colors and showy ornaments which decorate 

 the male have not been acquired by the fe- 

 male, who often remains clothed in the sober 

 hues which were probably once common to 

 the whole order to which she belongs. 

 WALLACE Darwinism, ch. 10, p. 187. 

 (Hum., 1889.) 



409. BROTHERHOOD OF MAN A 



Growing Conviction and Sentiment of the 

 Human Race. "If we would indicate an idea 

 which, throughout the whole course of his- 

 tory, has ever more and more widely ex- 

 tended its empire, or which, more than any 

 other, testifies to the much-contested and 

 still more decidedly misunderstood perfecti- 

 bility of the whole human race, it is that of 

 establishing our common humanity of 

 striving to remove the barriers which prej- 

 udice and limited views of every kind have 

 erected among men, and to treat all man- 

 kind, without reference to religion, nation, 

 or color, as one fraternity, one great com- 

 munity, fitted for the attainment of one ob- 

 ject, the unrestrained development of the 

 physical powers. This is the ultimate and 

 highest aim of society, identical with the 

 direction implanted by nature in the mind 

 of man toward the indefinite extension of 

 his existence. He regards the earth in all 

 its limits, and the heavens as far as his eye 

 can scan their bright and starry depths, as 

 inwardly his own, given to him as the ob- 

 jects of his contemplation, and as a field for 

 the development of his energies. Even the 

 child longs to pass the hills or the seas 

 which enclose his narrow home; yet, when 

 his eager steps have borne him beyond those 

 limits, he pines, like the plant, for his na- 

 tive soil; and it is by this touching and 

 beautiful attribute of man this longing for 

 that which is unknown, and this fond re- 

 membrance of that which is lost that he is 

 spared from an exclusive attachment to the 

 present. Thus deeply rooted in the inner- 

 most nature of man, and even enjoined upon 

 him by .his highest tendencies, the recogni- 

 tion of the bond of humanity becomes one of 

 the noblest leading principles in the history 



