;ry 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



206 



scaling the wall or otherwise, of touching 

 Juliet's lips directly. With the filings the 

 path is fixed; whether it reaches the end 

 depends on accidents. With the lover it is 

 the end which is fixed, the path may be 

 modified indefinitely. JAMES Psychology, 

 vol. i, ch. 1, p. 6. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



1007. ENDURANCE A GROWTH 



Ability to Sustain Pressure Gradually Ac- 

 quired Deep-sea Organisms Perish from 

 Lack of Pressure at Surface. It is but rea- 

 sonable to suppose that the ability to sus- 

 tain this enormous pressure [of the ocean 

 depths] can only be acquired by animals 

 after generations of gradual migrations 

 from shallow waters. Those forms that are 

 brought up by the dredge from the depths 

 of the ocean are usually killed and distorted 

 by the enormous and rapid diminution of 

 pressure in their journey to the surface, and 

 it is extremely probable that shallow- water 

 forms would be similarly killed and crushed 

 put of shape were they suddenly plunged 

 into very deep water. HICKSON Fauna of 

 the Deep Sea, ch. 2, p. 21. (A., 1894.) 



1008. ENDURANCE OF HIGH TEM- 

 PERATURES BY HUMAN BODY Heat 

 Converted into Work. You would certainly 

 suffer if you lay down upon a plate of metal 

 in a Turkish bath; but you do not suffer 

 when you lie down on a bench of wood. By 

 preserving the body from contact with good 

 conductors, very high temperatures may be 

 endured. Eggs may be boiled, and beef- 

 steaks cooked, by the heat of an apartment, 

 in which the bodies of living men sustain no 

 injury. The philosophy of this last experi- 

 ment is worthy of a moment's consideration. 

 With it the names of Blagden and Chantrey 

 are associated, those eminent men having ex- 

 posed themselves in ovens to temperatures 

 considerably higher than that of boiling 

 water. Let us compare the condition of the 

 two living human beings with that of two 

 marble statues, placed in the same oven. 

 The statues become gradually hotter, until 

 finally they assume the temperature of the 

 air of the oven; the two men, under the 

 same circumstances, do not similarly rise in 

 temperature. If they did, the tissues of the 

 body would be infallibly destroyed, the tem- 

 perature endured being more than sufficient 

 to stew the muscles in their own liquids. 

 Here the excess of heat, instead of being ap- 



C" id to increase the temperature of the 

 y, is applied to change its aggregation; 

 the heat prepares the perspiration, forces it 

 through the pores, and vaporizes it. Heat 

 is thus consumed in work. This is the 

 waste-pipe, if I may use the term, through 

 which the excess overflows. Some people have 

 professed to see, in this power of the living 

 body to resist a high temperature, a con- 

 servative action peculiar to the vital force. 

 No doubt all the actions of the animal or- 

 ganism are connected with what we call its 

 vitality; but the action here referred to is 

 the same in kind as the melting of ice or 



the vaporization of water. It consists 

 simply in the diversion of heat from the 

 purposes of temperature to the performance 

 of work. TYNDALL Heat a Mode of Motion, 

 lect. 9, p. 242. (A., 1900.) 



1009. ENEMIES ESCAPED BY MI- 

 GRATION Plants Thrive in New Soil 

 Every horticulturist knows that apples 

 grown in a new country, that is suited to 

 them, are healthy and fair; but, sooner or 

 later, the scab, and codling-moth, and bitter 

 rot, and bark-louse arrive, each to begin its 

 particular mode of attack. Peach-trees in 

 new places, remote from others, are often 

 easily grown and free from dangers; but 

 soon will arrive the yellows, borers, leaf- 

 curl rot, and other enemies. For a few 

 years plums may be grown, in certain new 

 localities, without danger from curculio, or 

 rot, or shot-hole fungus. It has long been 

 known that the nicest way to grow a few 

 cabbages, radishes, squashes, cucumbers, or 

 potatoes, is to plant a few here and there in 

 good soil, at considerable distances from 

 where any have heretofore been grown. For 

 a time enemies are not likely to find them. 

 BEAL Seed Dispersal, ch. 9, p. 85. (G. & 

 Co., 1898.) 



1010. ENERGY AMID INHIBITIONS 

 THE HIGHEST MENTAL TYPE Not to 



proceed immediately to extremities, to be 

 still able to act energetically under an array 

 of inhibitions that indeed is rare and diffi- 

 cult. Cavour, when urged to proclaim mar- 

 tial law in 1859, refused to do so, saying: 

 " Any one can govern in that way. I will 

 be constitutional." Your parliamentary 

 rulers, your Lincoln, your Gladstone, are the 

 strongest type of man, because they accom- 

 plish results under the most intricate pos- 

 sible conditions. We think of Napoleon 

 Bonaparte as a colossal monster of will- 

 power, and truly enough he was so. But, 

 from the point of view of the psychological 

 machinery, it would be hard to say whether 

 he or Gladstone was the larger volitional 

 quantity; for Napoleon disregarded all the 

 usual inhibitions, and Gladstone, passionate 

 as he was, scrupulously considered them in 

 his statesmanship. JAMES Talks to Teach- 

 ers, ch. 15, p. 180. (H. H. & Co., 1900.) 



1011. ENERGY AND FORCE DIS- 

 CRIMINATED Work the Measure of Energy. 

 To the ordinary mind energy and force 

 represent the same thing. And it has not 

 been many years, comparatively, since even 

 scientific men used the words synonymously. 

 Modern chemistry and modern physics make 

 a distinction, and define the two words dif- 

 ferently. 



" Force " is defined as the cause of motion, 

 or the generator of momentum, while " en- 

 ergy " is expressed in the motion itself, in 

 its power to do work. Force refers to the 

 causes, while energy refers to work or the 

 capacity to do work. The distinction is one 

 that is 'difficult to make plain. Strictly de- 



