Disfnufgiration 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



176 



be heated by a tropical sun. This was his 

 inference: to work it out, to ascertain the 

 origin and course of the Gulf Stream, has 

 been, in a great degree, the task of the 

 United States Coast Survey, under the di- 

 rection of his descendant, Dr. Bache. 

 AGASSIZ Journey in Brazil, ch. 1 p. 6. (H. 

 M. &Co., 1896.) 



857. DISCOVERY OF THE TRANS- 

 PARENCY OF AlRSmokelike Clouds of 

 Darkness. In a cylindrical beam, which 

 strongly illuminated the dust of the labora- 

 tory, I placed an ignited spirit-lamp. Min- 

 gling with the flame, and round its rim, were 

 seen curious wreaths of darkness resembling 

 an intensely black smoke. On placing the 

 flame at some distance below the beam, the 

 same dark masses stormed upwards. . . . 

 What, then, was the blackness? It was 

 simply that of stellar space ; that is to say, 

 blackness resulting from the absence from 

 the track of the beam of all matter compe- 

 tent to scatter its light. When the flame was 

 placed below the beam the floating matter 

 was destroyed in situ; and the air, freed 

 from this matter, rose into the beam, jostled 

 aside the illuminated particles, and substi- 

 tuted for their light the darkness due to its 

 own perfect transparency. Nothing could 

 more forcibly illustrate the invisibility of 

 the agent which renders all things visible. 

 The beam crossed, unseen, the black chasm 

 formed by the transparent air, while, at 

 both sides of the gap, the thick- strewn 

 particles shone out like a luminous solid 

 under the powerful illumination. TYNDALL 

 Floating Matter of the Air, p. 3. (A., 

 1895.) 



858. DISCpVERY, PHYSICAL Does 



Not Affect Spiritual Truth Enduring Im- 

 pressiveness of Scripture. No amount of 

 knowledge of the kind which alone physical 

 science can impart can do more than widen 

 the foundation of intelligent spiritual be- 

 liefs. We think that astronomy and geology 

 have given to us in these latter days ideas 

 wholly new in respect to space and time. 

 Yet, after all, can we express those ideas, or 

 can we indicate the questions they suggest, 

 in any language which approaches in power 

 to the majestic utterances of David and of 

 Job ? We know more than they knew of the 

 magnitude of the heavenly bodies ; but what 

 more can we say than they said of the won- 

 der of them of Orion, of Arcturus, and the 

 Pleiades? [Job ix, 9.] We know that the 

 earth moves, which they did not know; and 

 we know that the rapid rotation of a globe 

 on its own axis is a means of maintaining 

 the steadiness of that axis in its course 

 through space. But what effect, except that 

 of increasing its significance, has this knowl- 

 edge upon the praise which David ascribes 

 to that ultimate agency which has made the 

 round world so sure " that it cannot be 

 moved"? [Ps. xciii, 1.] ARGYLL Reign of 

 Law, ch. 2, p. 68. ( Burt. ) 



859. DISCOVERY, THE CHARM OF 



Compensation in Wonders of Science for 

 Lack of New Lands to Explore. They err 

 who believe that the conquistadores were 

 incited by love of gold and religious fanati- 

 cism alone. Perils always exalt the poetry 

 of life; and, moreover, the remarkable age, 

 whose influence on the development of cos- 

 mical ideas we are now depicting, gave to 

 all enterprises, and to the natural impres- 

 sions awakened by distant travels, the 

 charm of novelty and surprise, which is be- 

 ginning to fail us in the present well-in- 

 structed age, when so many portions of the 

 earth are opened to us. Not only one hemi- 

 sphere, but almost two-thirds of the earth, 

 were then a new and unexplored world, as 

 unseen as that portion of the moon's surface 

 which the law of gravitation constantly 

 averts from the glance of the inhabitants of 

 the earth. Our deeply inquiring age finds in 

 the increasing abundance of ideas presented 

 to the human mind a compensation for the 

 surprise formerly induced by the novelty 

 of grand, massive, and imposing natural 

 phenomena a compensation which will, it 

 is true, long be denied to the many, but is 

 vouchsafed to the few familiar with the con- 

 dition of science. To them the increasing 

 insight into the silent operation of natural 

 forces, whether in electro magnetism or in 

 the polarization of light, in the influence of 

 diathermanous substances or in the physio- 

 logical phenomena of vital organisms, gradu- 

 ally unveils a world of wonders, of which we 

 have scarcely reached the threshold. HTJM- 

 BOLDT Cosmos, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 271. (H., 

 1897.) 



860. DISCOVERY VALUELESS WITH- 

 OUT SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE That 



this first discovery of America [by the 

 Norsemen] in or before the eleventh century 

 should not have produced the important and 

 permanent results yielded to the physical 

 contemplation of the universe by the redis- 

 covery of the same continent by Columbus 

 at the close of the fifteenth century was the 

 necessary consequence of the uncivilized con- 

 dition of the people, and the nature of the 

 countries to which the early discoveries were 

 limited. The Scandinavians were wholly un- 

 prepared, by previous scientific knowledge, 

 for exploring the countries in which they 

 settled, beyond what was absolutely neces- 

 sary for the satisfaction of their immediate 

 wants. Greenland and Iceland, which must 

 be regarded as the actual mother countries 

 of the new colonies, were regions in which 

 man had to contend with all the hardships 

 of an inhospitable climate. HUMBOLDT Cos- 

 mos, vol. ii, pt. ii, p. 236. (H., 1897.) 



861. DISCRIMINATION OF SCIENCE 



Surface Indications Not Decisive The 

 Shell-mounds of Denmark. The Museum of 

 Northern Antiquities [of Copenhagen] con- 

 tains an immense collection of specimens 

 from some very interesting shell-mounds, 

 which are known in Denmark under the 



