213 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Environment 

 Epoi-h 



certain indulgence for that apparent neces- 

 sity of nature which we call our besetting 

 sin. Yet to break with the lower environ- 

 ment at all, to many, is to break at this 

 single point. It is the only important point 

 at which they touch it, circumstances or nat- 

 ural disposition making habitual contact at 

 other places impossible. The sinful environ- 

 ment, in short, to them means a small but 

 well-defined area. Now if contact at this 

 point be not broken off, they are virtually in 

 contact still with the whole environment. 

 DRUMMOND Natural Law in the Spiritual 

 World, essay 5, p. 167. (H. Al.) 



1039. ENVIRONMENT, SPIRITUAL 



Lack of Correspondence is Spiritual Death. 

 Now follows a momentous question. Is 

 man in correspondence with the whole en- 

 vironment? When we reach the highest liv- 

 ing organism, is the final blow dealt to the 

 kingdom of death? Has the last acre of the 

 infinite area been taken in by his finite fac- 

 ulties? Is his conscious environment the 

 whole environment? Or is there, among 

 these outermost circles, one which with his 

 multitudinous correspondences he fails to 

 reach. If so, this is death. The question 

 of life or death to him is the question of the 

 amount of remaining environment he is able 

 to compass. If there be one circle or one 

 segment of a circle which he yet fails to 

 reach, to correspond with, to know, to be 

 influenced by, he is, with regard to that cir- 

 cle, or segment, dead. DRUMMOND Natural 

 Law in the Spiritual World, essay 4, p. 140. 

 (H.A1.) 



1040. ENVIRONMENT, SUITABLE, A 

 NECESSITY OF LIFE Injurious Organisms 

 Live Only Where They Find a Favorable 

 Medium Awaiting Them. In the very earli- 

 est days of the study of micro-organisms it 

 was observed that they mostly congregate 

 where there is pabulum for their nourish- 

 ment. The reason why fluids such as milk, 

 and dead animal matter such as a carcass, and 

 living tissues such as a man's body contain 

 so many microbes is because each of these 

 three media is favorable to their growth. 

 Milk affords almost an ideal food and en- 

 vironment for microbes. Its temperature 

 and constitution frequently meet their re- 

 quirements. Dead animal matter, too, yields 

 a rich diet for some species (saprophytes). 

 In the living tissues bacteria obtain not only 

 nutriment, but a favorable temperature and 

 moisture. Outside the human body it has 

 been the endeavor of bacteriologists to pro- 

 vide media as like the above as possible, and 

 containing many of the same elements of 

 food. Thus the life-history may be carried 

 on outside the body and under observation. 

 NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 1, p. 20. (G. P. 

 P., 1899.) 



1O41. 



Requisites for Nat- 



ural Life Conditions of Vitality. To under- 

 stand the sustaining influence of environment 

 in the animal world, one has only to recall 

 what the biologist terms the extrinsic or 



subsidiary conditions of vitality. Every liv- 

 ing thing normally requires for its develop- 

 ment an environment containing air, light, 

 heat, and water. In addition to these, if 

 vitality is to be prolonged for any length of 

 time, and if it is to be accompanied with 

 growth and the expenditure of energy, there 

 must be a constant supply of food. When 

 we simply remember how indispensable food 

 is to growth and work, and when we fur- 

 ther bear in mind that 4he food-supply is 

 solely contributed by the environment', we 

 shall realize at once the meaning and the 

 truth of the proposition that without en- 

 vironment there can be no life. Seventy per 

 cent, at least of the human body is made of 

 pure water, the rest of gases and earths. 

 These have all come from environment. 

 Through the secret pores of the skin two 

 pounds of water are exhaled daily from 

 every healthy adult. The supply is kept 

 up by environment. The environment is 

 really an unappropriated part of ourselves. 

 Definite portions are continuously abstracted 

 from it and added to the organism. And so 

 long as the organism continues to grow, act, 

 think, speak, work, or perform any other 

 function demanding a supply of energy, 

 there is a constant, simultaneous, and pro- 

 portionate drain upon its surroundings. 

 DRUMMOND Natural Law in the Spiritual 

 World, essay 7, p. 234. (H. Al.) 



1042. 



Requisites for Spir- 



itual Life The Soul's Environment God. 

 Ii\ the spiritual world especially, he will be 

 wise who courts acquaintance with the most 

 ordinary and transparent facts of Nature; 

 and in laying the foundations for a religious 

 life he will make no unworthy beginning 

 who carries with him an impressive sense 

 of so obvious a truth as that without en- 

 vironment there can be no life. For what 

 does this amount to in the spiritual world? 

 Is it not merely the scientific restatement of 

 the reiterated aphorism of Christ, " Without 

 Me ye can do nothing"? There is in the 

 spiritual organism a principle of life; but 

 that is not self-existent. It requires a sec- 

 ond factor, a something in which to live and 

 move and have its being, an environment. 

 Without this it cannot live or move or have 

 any being. Without environment the soul is 

 as the carbon without the oxygen, as the fish 

 without the water, as the animal frame 

 without the extrinsic conditions of vitality. 

 And what is the spiritual environment? It 

 is God. Without this, therefore, there is no 

 life, no thought, no energy, nothing " with- 

 out Me ye can do nothing." DRUMMOND 

 Natural Law in the Spiritual World, essay 

 7, p. 237. (H. Al.) 



1O43. EPOCH CREATED BY GREAT 



DISCOVERIES The Telescope, Jupiter's Sat- 

 ellites, the Disk of Venus, Gravitation. The 

 whole of the seventeenth century, whose 

 commencement was brilliantly signalized by 

 the great discovery of the telescope, together 

 with the immediate results by which it was 



