175 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Discovery 



852. DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT 

 BEACH Rock Marked by Waves of Vanished 

 Sea. The gunpowder had loosened a large 

 mass in one of the inferior strata, and our 

 first employment, on resuming our labors, 

 was to raise it from its bed. I assisted the 

 other workmen in placing it on edge, and 

 was much struck by the appearance of the 

 platform on which it had rested. The entire 

 surface was ridged and furrowed like a bank 

 of sand that had been left by the tide an 

 hour before. I could trace every bend and 

 curvature, every cross-hollow and counter- 

 ridge of the corresponding phenomena; for 

 the resemblance was no half resemblance it 

 was the thing itself; and I had observed it 

 a hundred and a hundred times, when sail- 

 ing my little schooner in the shallows left 

 by the ebb. But what had become of the 

 waves that had thus fretted the solid rock, 

 or of what element had they been composed ? 

 I felt as completely at fault as Robinson 

 Crusoe did on his discovering the print of 

 the man's foot on the sand. MILLER The 

 Old Red Sandstone, ch. 1, p. 7. (G. & L., 

 1851.) 



853. DISCOVERY OF GRAVITATION 



Newton Story of the Apple Earth's At- 

 traction Already Well Understood Newton 

 Saw the Same Law Pervading All Space. 

 But it was not till Newton came that the true 

 meaning of these laws [of Kepler] was as- 

 certained, and very wonderful is the history 

 of the process by which he solved the noble 

 problem which Nature had presented to 

 mankind for investigation. Every one has 

 heard the story of the apple, whose fall is 

 said to have suggested to Newton the great 

 discovery for which his name will be de- 

 servedly celebrated for all time. The story 

 may be true in a sense, tho not in the sense 

 usually given to it. Newton certainly did 

 not ask why the apple fell, since it was well 

 understood in his day, and had been known 

 for many centuries, that bodies fall to the 

 earth by virtue of her attractive influence. 

 But it is quite possible that Newton, who 

 had long been engaged in profound medita- 

 tion on the laws of planetary motion, should 

 have suddenly seen revealed to him the pos- 

 sibility that a far wider law of attraction 

 exists. His mind was full of the thoughts 

 suggested by the mysterious energies which 

 appear to sway the motions of the planets; 

 and here, suddenly, his attention was called 

 to the mysterious energy by which the earth 

 draws bodies to her surface. What if one 

 and the same form of force is exerted in all 

 such cases? What if the sun draws the 

 planets towards him, as the earth draws un- 

 supported bodies towards her ? What if the 

 law exemplified in the fall of the apple 

 is a universal law? PROCTOR Expanse of 

 Heaven, p. 110. (L. G. & Co.) 



854. DISCOVERY OF MAMMOTH 



Remains Preserved in Icy Tomb. In 1799 a 

 Tungusian hunter discovered the body of a 

 mammoth embedded in a cliff of frozen soil, 



where it remained for several years. In 1806 

 it was visited by Mr. Adams, who found it 

 partly devoured by wolves and other wild 

 animals, and partly removed by the Yakuts, 

 who used it as food for their dogs. Fortu- 

 nately, however, a considerable portion of 

 the animal still remained. The skin was 

 dark gray, covered with reddish wool, mixed 

 with long black bristles, somewhat thicker 

 than horsehair. Another frozen mammoth 

 was discovered in 1846, besides several other 

 well-preserved portions, and it was probably 

 from earlier finds of a similar nature that 

 the Siberian tribes began to regard the 

 mammoth as a gigantic burrowing animal. 

 It is hardly necessary to observe that the 

 state of preservation in which mammoths 

 have been found is no evidence of recent ex- 

 istence, for when once enveloped in frozen 

 soil they might remain unchanged for an 

 indefinite period. AVEBTJRY Prehistoric 

 Times, ch. 9, p. 273. (A., 1900.) 



855. DISCOVERY OF MEN THE 

 CHIEF NEED Wealth Can Liberate Genius 

 from Petty Toil and Care. Your most diffi- 

 cult problem [in the United States] will be 

 not to build institutions, but to discover 

 men. You may erect laboratories and en- 

 dow them; you may furnish them with all 

 the appliances needed for inquiry; in so do- 

 ing you are but creating opportunity for the 

 exercise of powers which come from sources 

 entirely beyond your reach. You cannot 

 create genius by bidding for it. In Biblical 

 language, it is the gift of God; and the 

 most you could do, were your wealth, and 

 your willingness to apply it, a millionfold 

 what they are, w r ould be to make sure that 

 this glorious plant shall have the freedom, 

 light, and warmth necessary for its develop- 

 ment. We see from time to time a noble 

 tree dragged down by parasitic runners. 

 These the gardener can remove, tho the vital 

 force of the tree itself may lie beyond him: 

 and so, in many a case, you men of wealth 

 can liberate genius from the hampering toils 

 which the struggle for existence often casts 

 around it. TYNDALL Lectures on Light, p. 

 227. (A., 1898.) 



856. DISCOVERY OF THE GULF 

 STREAM Franklin' 8 Wide Inference from 

 Partial Observation Genius Coordinates 

 Facts. It was Franklin who first systemat- 

 ically observed these facts, tho they had been 

 noticed long before by navigators. He re- 

 corded the temperature of the water as he 

 left the American continent for Europe, and 

 found that it continued cold for a certain dis- 

 tance, then rose suddenly, and after a given 

 time sank again to a lower temperature, tho 

 not so low as before. With the comprehen- 

 sive grasp of mind characteristic of all his 

 scientific results, he went at once beyond his 

 facts. He inferred that the warm current, 

 keeping its way so steadily through the 

 broad Atlantic, and carrying tropical pro- 

 ductions to the northern shores of Europe, 

 must take its rise in tropical regions, must 



