lange 

 langes 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



94 



the region. Till quite recently this com- 

 prised its whole diet, but since the country 

 it inhabits has become occupied by Euro- 

 peans it has developed a taste for a carnivo- 

 rous diet, with alarming results. It began 

 by picking the sheepskins hung out to dry or 

 the meat in process of being cured. About 

 1868 it was first observed to attack living 

 sheep, which had frequently been found with 

 raw and bleeding wounds on their backs. 

 Since then it is stated that the bird actually 

 burrows into the living sheep, eating its way 

 down to the kidneys, which form its special 

 delicacy. As a natural consequence, the 

 bird is being destroyed as rapidly as pos- 

 sible. . . . The case affords a remark- 

 able instance of how the climbing feet and 

 powerful hooked beak developed for one set 

 of purposes can be applied to another alto- 

 gether different purpose, and it also shows 

 how little real stability there may be in 

 what appear to us the most fixed habits of 

 life. WALLACE Darwinism, ch. 3, p. 52. 

 (Hum., 1889.) 



465. CHANGE OF HEART Effect of 

 Grief or Fear New Mental Level Produces 

 New Perspective. There is a form of deci- 

 sion [in which] , in consequence of some outer 

 experience or some inexplicable inward 

 change, we suddenly pass from the easy and 

 careless to the sober and strenuous mood, or 

 possibly the other way. The whole scale of 

 values of our motives and impulses then un- 

 dergoes a change like that which a change 

 of the observer's level produces on a view. 

 The most sobering possible agents are ob- 

 jects of grief and fear. When one of these 

 affects us, all " light fantastic " notions lose 

 their motive power, all solemn ones find 

 theirs multiplied manifold. The conse- 

 quence is an instant abandonment of the 

 more trivial projects with which we had 

 been dallying, and an instant practical ac- 

 ceptance of the more grim and earnest al- 

 ternative which till then could not extort 

 our mind's consent. All those " changes of 

 heart," " awakenings of conscience," etc., 

 which make new men of so many of us, may 

 be classed under this head. The character 

 abruptly rises to another " level," and de- 

 liberation comes to an immediate end. 

 JAMES Psychology, vol. ii, ch. 26, p. 533. 

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



466. CHANGE OF POSITIONS OF 

 FIXED STARS Not One Star of Greek As- 

 tronomers Now Holds Its Place Unchanged 

 " Fixed Stars " a Misnomer. The heaven 

 of the fixed stars, in contradiction to its 

 very name, exhibits not only changes in the 

 intensity of light, but also further variation 

 from the perpetual motion of the individual 

 stars. Allusion has already been made to 

 the fact that, without disturbing the equilib- 

 rium of the star systems, no fixed point is 

 to be found in the whole heavens, and that 

 of all the bright stars observed by the ear- 

 liest of the Greek astronomers, not one has 

 kept its place unchanged. In the case of 



Arcturus, of v Cassiopeise, and of a double 

 star in Cygnus, this change of position has, 

 by the accumulation of their annual proper 

 motion during 2,000 years, amounted, re- 

 spectively, to 2y 2 , 3y 2 , and 6 moon's diam- 

 eters. In the course of 3,000 years about 

 twenty fixed stars will have changed their 

 places by 1 and upward. Since the proper 

 motions of the fixed stars rise from ^th of 

 a second to 7.7 seconds (and consequently 

 differ, at the least, in the ratio of 1.154), 

 the relative distances also of the fixed stars 

 from each other, and the configuration of 

 the constellations themselves, cannot in long 

 periods remain the same. The Southern 

 Cross will not always shine in the heavens 

 exactly in its present form, for the four 

 stars of which it consists move with unequal 

 velocity in different paths. How many thou- 

 sand years will elapse before its total dis- 

 solution cannot be calculated. In the rela- 

 tions of space and the duration of time, no 

 absolute idea can be attached to the terms 

 great and small. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. 

 iii, p. 182. (H., 1897.) 



467. CHANGE OF SKIES IN SOUTH- 

 ERN CLIMES Reversal of All Ideas of Posi- 

 tion The Sun North at Noon. If we travel 

 southward we find that the north pole 

 gradually sinks towards the horizon, while 

 new stars come into view above the south 

 horizon; consequently the circles of per- 

 petual apparition and of perpetual disap- 

 pearance both grow smaller. When we 

 reach the earth's equator the south pole has 

 risen to the south horizon, the north pole 

 has sunk to the north horizon ; the celestial 

 equator passes from east to west directly 

 overhead; and all the heavenly bodies in 

 their diurnal revolutions describe circles of 

 which one-half is above and the other half 

 below the horizon. These circles are all 

 vertical. South of the equator only the 

 south pole is visible, the north one, which 

 we see, being now below the horizon. Be- 

 yond the southern tropic the sun is north 

 at noon, and, instead of moving from left 

 to right, its course is from right to left. 

 NEWCOMB Popular Astronomy, ch. 1, p. 13. 

 (H., 1899.) 



468. CHANGE OF VIEW OF SCIEN- 

 TIST Spencer Accepts Natural Selection. 

 In the days when, not having been better 

 instructed by Mr. Darwin, I believed that 

 all changes of structure in organisms result 

 from changes of function, I held that the 

 cause of such changes of function is migra- 

 tion. . . . This conception was wrong 

 in so far as it ascribed the production of 

 new species entirely to inheritance of func- 

 tionally wrought alterations (thus failing 

 to recognize natural selection, which was 

 not yet enunciated). SPENCER Biology, pt. 

 iii, ch. 14A, p. 568. (A., 1900.) 



469. CHANGE, SILENT WITNESS OF 



Surface, Former, of Earth Removed 

 Granite from Depths Found at New Surface. 





