199 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Edifice 

 Effect 



human eye and brain, however we may sim- 

 plify our conceptions of their action, must 

 be highly complex. Whence this triple com- 

 plexity? If what are called material pur- 

 poses were the only end to be served, a much 

 simpler mechanism would be sufficient; but 

 instead of simplicity, we have prodigality of 

 relation and adaptation and this apparent- 

 ly for the sole purpose of enabling us to see 

 things robed in the splendors of color. 

 Would it not seem that Nature harbored the 

 intention of educating us for other enjoy- 

 ments than those derivable from meat and 

 drink? At all events, whatever Nature 

 meant and it would be mere presumption 

 to dogmatize as to what she meant we find 

 ourselves here, as the upshot of her opera- 

 tions, endowed w r ith capacities to enjoy not 

 only the materially useful, but endowed 

 with others of indefinite scope and applica- 

 tion, which deal alone with the beautiful 

 and the true. TYNDALL Lectures on Light, 

 lect. 1, p. 39. (A., 1898.) 



972. EDUCATION, VALUE OF NA- 

 TURE-STUDY IN Faculty of Observation 

 Trained Early in Childhood. I do not hesi- 

 tate to affirm that a boy or girl of, say, ten 

 years of age may receive a certain amount 

 of elementary biological instruction, which 

 will be of the greatest service in the train- 

 ing of the child's mind, and which will as- 

 sist the due appreciation of its other 

 studies. As Sir James Paget well remarks, 

 " The askings of children seem to indicate a 

 natural desire after a knowledge of the pur- 

 poses fulfilled in Nature " ; and even where 

 this desire is most feebly developed, the 

 plain, interesting teaching of the grand yet 

 simple facts of biology will tend to arouse 

 the latent curiosity of the child, and to 

 early awaken its sympathies with the things 

 of living Nature. Dr. Carpenter, in his evi- 

 dence before the English Public Schools Com- 

 mission, lays great stress upon the impor- 

 tance of enabling children to begin the 

 study of physical and natural science at an 

 early age. He says : " The training of the 

 observing faculties by attention to the phe- 

 nomena of Nature, both in physical and in 

 natural science, seems to me to be the nat- 

 ural application of time at the age of, say, 

 from eight to twelve." Dr. Carpenter fur- 

 ther exemplifies, by citing his own case, the 

 value of an early training in science as tend- 

 ing to cultivate the observant habits more 

 thoroughly than when the study is entered 

 upon at a later period. The evidence of the 

 late Sir Charles Lyell goes to support Dr. 

 Carpenter's views in relation to the advan- 

 tages of training the observant faculties in 

 early youth ; the age of nine or ten, the late 

 distinguished geologist maintained, being 

 that at which the powers of observation are 

 sufficiently developed, and when, if pupils 

 be taught natural science, " they learn a 

 vast deal of other things in consequence." 

 ANDREW W T ILSON Biology in Education, p. 

 16. (Hum., 1888.) 



973. EFFECT BEYOND APPARENT 



CAUSE Change Produced by Rise in Tem- 

 perature of Two Degrees Arctic Desolation 

 Succeeded by Life and Movement One Step 

 above Brute Intelligence Gives Human In- 

 tellect. In part of the arctic regions at this 

 moment there is no such thing as liquid. 

 Matter is only known there in the solid 

 form. The temperature may be thirty-one 

 degrees below zero or thirty-one degrees 

 above zero without making the slightest dif- 

 ference; there can be nothing there but ice, 

 glacier, and those crystals of ice which we 

 call snow. But suppose the temperature 

 rose two degrees, the difference would be in- 

 describable. While no change for sixty de- 

 grees below that point made the least dif- 

 ference, the almost inappreciable addition of 

 two degrees changes the country into a 

 world of water. The glaciers, under the new 

 conditions, retreat into the mountains, the 

 vesture of ice drops into the sea, a garment 

 of greenness clothes the land. So, in the 

 animal world, a very small rise beyond the 

 animal maximum may open the door for a 

 revolution. DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, ch. 

 5, p. 186. (J. P., 1900.) 



974. 



General Tide-move- 



ment Increased by Local Conditions. The 

 moon raises the surface of the sea at the 

 equator by fifty centimeters [about 19.7 

 inches], and, the action of the sun being 

 added, the elevation reaches 74 centimeters 

 [29.1 inches]. The height decreases up to 

 the poles, where the amplitude of the oscil- 

 lations is reduced to zero, and there is no 

 tide, even when the sea is not frozen. 



The amount by which the surface of the 

 sea is raised and lowered successively is, in 

 general, very much greater than what we 

 have stated, assuming that this surface 

 takes at each instant the figure of equilib- 

 rium which agrees with the magnitude and 

 direction of the attractions of the sun and 

 moon. We have seen that the greatest dif- 

 ference of level which can exist, on this 

 hypothesis, between high water and the fol- 

 lowing low water is only 2.43 feet at the 

 equator, if the sun and moon are at their 

 mean distances. Now, there exist certain 

 localities where the same difference exceeds 

 thirty-two feet in the vertical direction. 

 FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, bk. ii, ch. 

 7, p. 166. (A.) 



975. 



Tides Rise Higher 



than Attraction of Sun and Moon Would 

 Draw Them Momentum Outlives Incite- 

 ment. The waters of the sea, contained in a 

 space limited on both sides by the conti- 

 nents, oscillate in this space, which forms a 

 sort of vessel of small depth relatively to its 

 surface; these oscillations are kept up by 

 the disturbing actions of the moon and sun, 

 of which the intensity and the direction 

 change every instant. When, in consequence 

 of these actions, the surface of the sea is 

 forced to rise at a certain side of the basin 

 which contains it, the water is carried to 



