Evidence 

 Evolution 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



224 



1087. EVIDENCE OF PHOSPHORES- 

 CENCE IN DEEP-SEA ANIMALS -The 

 subject of the power of emitting phosphores- 

 cent light possessed by some deep-sea ani- 

 mals is much more difficult to deal with. 



The presence of distinct organs in many 

 of the deep-sea fish that can only be reason- 

 ably interpreted as phosphorescent organs, 

 the presence of well-developed and evidently 

 functional eyes in many deep-sea animals, 

 and many other considerations render it 

 very highly probable that some, if not many, 

 forms emit a phosphorescent light. 



The power and constancy of the light 

 emitted, however, must for the present re- 

 main a matter of conjecture. HICKSON 

 Fauna of the Deep Sea, ch. 4, p. 75. (A., 

 1894.) 



1088. EVIDENCE OF SELF-DE- 

 TERMINING POWER Common-sense 

 Proof of External World. The writer en- 

 tirely agrees with Archbishop Manning, in 

 maintaining that we have exactly the same 

 evidence of the existence of this self-deter- 

 mining power within ourselves, that we have 

 of the existence of a material world outside 

 ourselves. For however intimate may be the 

 functional correlation between mind and 

 brain and Archbishop Manning seems dis- 

 posed to go as far as the writer in recogni- 

 zing this intimacy "there is still another 

 faculty, and more than this, another agent, 

 distinct from the thinking brain." . . . 

 " That we are conscious of thought and will, 

 is a fact of our internal experience. It is a 

 iact also of the universal experience of all 

 men; this is an immediate and intuitive 

 truth of absolute certainty. Dr. Carpenter 

 lays down as an axiomatic truth ' that the 

 common-sense decision of mankind, in re- 

 gard to the existence of an external world, 

 is practically worth more than all the argu- 

 ments of all the logicians who have dis- 

 cussed the basis of our belief in it.' " CAR- 

 PENTER Mental Physiology, bk. i, ch. 1, p. 5. 

 (A., 1900.) 



1089. EVIDENCE THAT CHALK IS 



AN ANCIENT SEA-BOTTOM The evidence 

 furnished by the hewing, facing, and super- 

 position of the stones of the pyramids, that 

 these structures were built by men, has no 

 greater weight than the evidence that the 

 chalk was built by Globigerinw; and the be- 

 lief that those ancient pyramid-builders 

 were terrestrial and air-breathing creatures, 

 like ourselves, is not better based than the 

 conviction that the chalk-makers lived in the 

 sea. But as our belief in the building of the 

 pyramids by men is not only grounded on 

 the internal evidence afforded by these struc- 

 tures, but gathers strength from multitudi- 

 nous collateral proofs, and is clinched by the 

 total absence of any reason for a contrary 

 belief; so the evidence drawn from the 

 Globigerince, that the chalk is an ancient sea- 

 bottom, is fortified by innumerable inde- 

 pendent lines of evidence ; and our belief in 

 the truth of the conclusion to which all posi- 



tive testimony tends, receives the like nega- 

 tive justification from the fact that no other 

 hypothesis has a shadow of foundation. 

 HUXLEY Lay Sermons, serm. 9, p. 187. (G. 

 P.P., 1897.) 



1090. EVIDENCE, UNTRUSTWOR- 

 THY Excitement, Credulity, and Inaccuracy 

 May Vitiate. But, in dealing with the de- 

 scriptions of these grand and terrible events, 

 we must always be on our guard against ac- 

 cepting as literal facts the statements made 

 by witnesses, often writing at some distance 

 from the scene of action, and almost always 

 under the influence of violent excitement 

 and terror. The desire to administer to the 

 universal love of the marvelous, and the 

 tendency to exaggeration, will usually ac- 

 count for many of the wonderful statements 

 contained in such records; and, even where 

 the witness is accurately relating events 

 which he thinks passed before his eyes, we 

 must remember that it is probable he may 

 have had neither the opportunity nor the 

 capacity for exact observation. JUDD Vol- 

 canoes, ch. 2, p. 30. (A., 1899.) 



1091. EVIL DESTROYED BY 

 GROWTH OF GOOD Scientific Control of 

 Bacteria Favorable Germs Planted to Ex- 

 terminate the Undesirable. Recently, how- 

 ever, a new method has been introduced, 

 largely through the work and influence of 

 Professor Storch in Denmark, which is based 

 upon our new knowledge respecting bacterial 

 action in cream-ripening. We refer to the 

 artificial processes of ripening set up by the 

 addition of pure cultures of favorable germs. 

 If a culture of organisms possessing the 

 faculty of producing in cream a good flavor 

 be added to the sweet cream, it is clear that 

 advantage will accrue. This simple plan of 

 starting any special or desired flavor by in- 

 troducing the specific micro-organisms of 

 that flavor may be adopted in two or three 

 different ways. If cream be inoculated with 

 a large, pure culture of some particular kind 

 of bacteria, this species will frequently grow 

 so well and so rapidly that it will check the 

 growth of the other bacteria which were 

 present in the cream at the commencement 

 and before the starter was added. That is, 

 perhaps, the simplest method of adding an 

 artificial culture. NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 6, 

 p. 217. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



1092. EVIL, MORAL, A UNIVERSAL 

 FACT Unworthiness Distinct from Ignorance. 

 There is an absolute contrast between our 

 sense of limitation in respect to intellectual 

 power (or knowledge) and our sense of un- 

 worthiness in respect to moral character. 

 It is not of ignorance, but of knowledge, that 

 we are conscious here even the knowledge 

 of the distinction between good and evil, and 

 of that special sense which in our nature is 

 associated with it, namely, the sense of 

 moral obligation. Now it is a universal 

 fact of consciousness as regards ourselves, 

 and of observation in regard to others, that, 

 knowing evil to be evil, men are nevertheless 



