leanliness 

 lothing 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



104 



plate was then exposed in the same place for 

 an equal length of time, a control also being 

 exposed at the same time at a distance of 

 ten feet from the animal and six feet from 

 the ground to ascertain the germ contents 

 of the surrounding air. From this experi- 

 ment the following instructive data were 

 gathered. Where the animal was milked 

 without any special precautions being taken 

 there were 3,250 bacterial germs per minute 

 deposited on an area equal to the exposed 

 top of a ten-inch milk-pail. Where the cow 

 received the precautionary treatment as 

 suggested above, there were only 115 germs 

 per minute deposited on the same area. In 

 the plate that was exposed to the surround- 

 ing air at some distance from the cow there 

 were 65 bacteria. This indicates that a 

 large number of organisms from the dry 

 coat of the animal can be kept out of milk 

 if such simple precautions as these are car- 

 ried out." NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 6, p. 182. 

 (G. P. P., 1899.) 



516. CLEANLINESS, UTILITY OF, 

 DISCOVERED WHILE REASONS WERE 

 UNKNOWN To the credit of English sur- 

 geons it stands recorded that, guided by 

 their practical sagacity, they had adopted in 

 their hospitals measures of amelioration 

 which reduced, almost to a minimum, the 

 rate of mortality arising from the " mortifi- 

 cation " of wounds. They had discovered 

 the evils incident to " dirt"; and, by keep- 

 ing dirt far away from them, they had 

 saved innumerable lives, which would un- 

 doubtedly have succumbed under conditions 

 prevalent in many of the hospitals of con- 

 tinental Europe. In thus acting, English 

 surgeons were, for the most part, " wiser 

 than they knew." Their knowledge, how- 

 ever momentous in its practical applica- 

 tions, was still empirical knowledge. That 

 dirt was fatal they had discovered ; but why 

 it was fatal few of them knew. TYNDALL 

 Floating Matter of the Air, int., p. 7. (A., 

 1895.) 



517. CLEANLINESS, UTILITY OF, 

 SCIENTIFICALLY DEMONSTRATED Lis- 

 ter and Schwann Proved Germs to Be Dead- 

 ly. At this point Lister came forward with 

 a scientific principle which rendered all 

 plain. Dirt was fatal, not as dirt, but be- 

 cause it contained living germs which, as 

 Schwann was the first to prove, are the 

 cause of putrefaction. Lister extended the 

 generalization of Schwann from dead matter 

 to living matter, and by this apparently 

 simple step revolutionized the art of sur- 

 gery. He changed it, in fact, from an art 

 into a science. TYNDALL Floating Matter 

 of the Air, int., p. 8. (A., 1895.) 



518. CLEARNESS OF THE CELES- 

 TIAL ETHER Contrast with the Atmosphere 

 of Earth. It is marvelous that we can per- 

 ceive the stars at such a distance. What an 

 admirable transparency in these immense 

 spaces to permit the light to pass, without 

 being wasted, to thousands of billions of 



miles! Around us, in the thick air which 

 envelops us, the mountains are already 

 darkened and difficult to see at seventy 

 miles; the least fog hides from us objects 

 on the horizon. What must be the tenuity, 

 the rarefaction, the extreme transparency of 

 the ethereal medium which fills the celestial 

 spaces! FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, 

 bk. vi, ch. 1, p. 553. (A.) 



519. CLIMATE, ALTERNATIONS OF 



Change from Glacial Epoch to Tropical 

 Period Siberian Mammoths Elephant, 

 Lion, Tiger. It will naturally be asked 

 whether some recent geological discoveries 

 bringing evidence to light of a colder, or as 

 it has been termed " glacial epoch," towards 

 the close of the Tertiary period throughout 

 the northern hemisphere, does not conflict 

 with the theory., above alluded to, of a 

 warmer temperature having prevailed in 

 the eras of the Eocene, Miocene, and Pli- 

 ocene formations. In answer to this inquiry, 

 it may certainly be affirmed that an oscilla- 

 tion of climate has occurred in times imme- 

 diately antecedent to the peopling of the 

 earth by man; but proof of the intercala- 

 tion of a less genial climate, at an era when 

 nearly all the marine and terrestrial testa- 

 cea had already become specifically the same 

 as those now living, by no means rebuts the 

 conclusion previously drawn, in favor of a 

 warmer condition of the globe during the 

 ages which elapsed while the tertiary strata 

 were deposited. In some of the most super- 

 ficial patches of sand, gravel, and loam, 

 scattered very generally over Europe, and 

 containing recent shells, the remains of ex- 

 tinct species of land quadrupeds have been 

 found, especially in places where the allu- 

 vial matter appears to have been washed 

 into small lakes, or into depressions in the 

 plains bordering ancient rivers. Similar de- 

 posits have also been lodged in rents and 

 caverns of rocks, where they may have been 

 swept in by land floods, or introduced by 

 engulfed rivers during changes in the phys- 

 ical geography of these countries. . . . 

 Among the extinct mammalia thus en- 

 tombed, we find species of the elephant, 

 rhinoceros, hippopotamus, bear, hyena, 

 lion, tiger, monkey (Macacus), and many 

 others, consisting partly of genera now con- 

 fined to warmer regions. LYELL Principles 

 of Geology, ch. 6, p. 75. (A., 1854.) 



520. Elephants Once 



Abundant in Siberia Ivory in Northern 

 Russia. The most recent discoveries made 

 in 1843 by Mr. Middendorf, a distinguished 

 Russian naturalist, and which he communi- 

 cated to me in September, 1846, afford more 

 precise information as to the climate of the 

 Siberian lowlands, at the period when the 

 extinct quadrupeds were entombed. One 

 elephant was found on the Tas, between the 

 Obi and Yenisei, near the arctic circle, 

 about lat. 66 30' N., with some parts 

 of the flesh in so perfect a state that the 

 bulb of the eye is now preserved in the mu- 





