Compensation 

 Concentration 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



114 



glands of the closely inflected tentacles pour- 

 ing forth their acid secretion, which dis- 

 solves animal matter, afterwards to be ab- 

 sorbed, may be said to feed like an animal. 

 But, differently from an animal, it drinks 

 by means of its roots; and it must drink 

 largely, so as to retain many drops of viscid 

 fluid round the glands, sometimes as many 

 as 260, exposed during the whole day to a 

 glaring sun. DARWIN Insectivorous Plants, 

 ch. 1, p. 14. (A., 1900.) 



563. COMPENSATIONS OF THE 

 DEEP Lack of Sight Accompanied by Supe- 

 rior Organs of Touch. The disappearance 

 of the sense of sight in the animals of the 

 deep sea is sometimes accompanied by an 

 enormous development of tactile organs. 

 Thus, among fishes we find Bathypterois, a 

 form that possesses extremely small eyes, 

 provided with enormously long pectoral fin- 

 rays that most probably possess the func- 

 tions of organs of touch. Among the Crus- 

 tacea we find the blind form, Galathodes 

 Antonii, with an extraordinary development 

 in length of the antennae, and Nematocar- 

 cinus, with enormously long antennae and 

 legs. HICKSON Fauna of the Deep Sea, ch. 

 4, p. 75. (A., 1894.) 



564. COMPETITORS, NEW, AFFECT 

 PLANT OR ANIMAL IN NEW LAND 

 Hence we can see that when a plant or ani- 

 mal is placed in a new country, among new 

 competitors, the conditions of its life will 

 generally be changed in an essential man- 

 ner, altho the climate may be exactly the 

 same as in its former home. If its average 

 numbers are to increase in its new home, we 

 should have to modify it in a different way 

 to what we should have had to do in its na- 

 tive country; for we should have to give it 

 some advantage over a different set of com- 

 petitors or enemies. DARWIN Origin of 

 Species, ch. 3, p. 72. (Burt.) 



565. COMPLEXITY OF CONSCIOUS- 

 NESS ALWAYS No Feeling or Motive Sim- 

 ple and Unmingled. We have thus fields 

 of consciousness that is the first general 

 fact ; and the second general fact is that the 

 concrete fields are always complex. They 

 contain sensations of our bodies and of the 

 objects around us, memories of past experi- 

 ences and thoughts of distant things, feel- 

 ings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, de- 

 sires and aversions, and other emotional 

 conditions, together with determinations of 

 the will, in every variety of permutation 

 and combination. .JAMES Talks to Teachers, 

 ch. 2, p. 17. (H. H. & Co., 1900.) 



566. COMPLEXITY OF HUMAN 

 BRAIN AND FINENESS OF STRUCTURE 



Adapted to Freedom and Variety of Hu- 

 man Thought. When it is remembered, in- 

 deed, that the brain itself is very large, the 

 largest mass of nerve-matter in the organic 

 world ; when it is further realized that each 

 of the cells of which it is built up measures 

 only one-ten-thousandth of an inch in 



diameter, that the transit-fibers which con- 

 nect them are of altogether unimaginable 

 fineness, the limitlessness of the powers of 

 thought and the inconceivable complexity 

 of these processes will begin to be under- 

 stood. DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, p. 286. 

 (J. P., 1900.) 



567 . COMPLEXITY OF THE STRUG- 

 GLE FOR LIFE Bumblebees Field-mice- 

 Cats. Humblebees alone visit red clover, 

 as other bees cannot reach the nectar. . . . 

 Hence we may infer as highly probable that, 

 if the whole genus of humblebees became 

 extinct or very rare in England, the red 

 clover would become very rare, or wholly 

 disappear. The number of humblebees in 

 any district depends in a great measure 

 upon the number of field-mice, which destroy 

 their combs and nests; and Colonel New- 

 man, who has long attended to the habits of 

 humblebees, believes that " more than two- 

 thirds of them are thus destroyed all over 

 England." Now the number of mice is 

 largely dependent, as every one knows, on 

 the number of cats. . . . Hence it is 

 quite credible that the presence of a feline 

 animal in large numbers in a district might 

 determine, through the intervention first of 

 mice and then of bees, the frequency of cer- 

 tain flowers in that district. DARWIN Ori- 

 gin of Species, ch. 1, p. 68. (Burt.) 



568. COMPLEXITY REQUIRES 

 TIME FOR DEVELOPMENT Two or- 

 ganisms of the same size, but belonging to 

 different grades of organization, will require 

 different periods of time for their develop- 

 ment. Certain animals of a very lowly or- 

 ganization, such as the Rhizopoda, may at- 

 tain a diameter of .5 mm. and may thus 

 become larger than many insects' eggs. Yet 

 under favorable circumstances an ameba 

 can divide into two animals in ten minutes, 

 while no insect's egg can develop into the 

 young animal in a less period than twenty- 

 four hours. Time is required for the devel- 

 opment of the immense number of cells 

 which must in the latter case arise from the 

 single egg-cell. WEISMANN Heredity, vol. i, 

 ch. 1, p. 8. (Cl. P., 1891.) 



569. COMPOSITION OF FORCES- 



Path of a Pendulum Changed to an Ellipse. 

 Suspended before you is a pendulum, 

 which, when drawn aside and liberated, os- 

 cillates to and fro. If, when the pendulum 

 is passing the middle point of its excursion, 

 I impart a shock to it tending to drive it at 

 right angles to its present course, what oc- 

 curs? The two impulses compound them- 

 selves to a vibration oblique in direction to 

 the former one, but the pendulum still oscil- 

 lates in a plane. But, if the rectangular 

 shock be imparted to the pendulum when it 

 is at the limit of its swing, then the com- 

 pounding of the two impulses causes the sus- 

 pended ball to describe, not a straight line, 

 but an ellipse; and, if the shock be com- 

 petent of itself to produce a vibration of the 



