257 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Fish 

 Flood 



had supposed that the world extended to 

 infinity below our feet, solidly founded for- 

 ever, and, without comprehending this in- 

 finite extension of matter, they remained 

 in ignorance and believed in the firm solid- 

 ity of the earth. But when the curves de- 

 scribed by the stars above our heads were 

 continued" after they set below the horizon, 

 to start again when they rose, it was neces- 

 sary to imagine the earth pierced right 

 through with tunnels large enough to per- 

 mit the passage of the celestial torches. 

 . . . But the idea of supporting the 

 earth on mountains or otherwise only evades 

 the difficulty, for these mountains, ele- 

 phants, or columns would, of course, re- 

 quire to rest on some lower foundation. As, 

 moreover, the sky seems to turn round in 

 one piece, the subterfuges invented in order 

 to preserve for the earth something of its 

 [supposed] original stability at last disap- 

 peared by the force of circumstances, and 

 they were obliged to admit that the earth is 

 isolated in all its parts. FLAMMARION Pop- 

 ular Astronomy, ch. 1, p. 5. (A.) 



1256. FLAME THE FRANKENSTEIN 

 OF ALCHEMISTS The Real Wonder-worker 

 Man Must Work with Nature's Laws. 

 Flame was the mighty Frankenstein to 

 whom the old alchemists looked for aid in 

 their visionary schemes of transmutation; 

 but since the time of those assiduous but 

 misguided philosophers, flame has worked 

 greater wonders than ever entered into their 

 wildest fancies. The diligent experimenter 

 may be assured that much still remains un- 

 disclosed, and that by means of the Bunsen 

 burner, blowpipe, and blast-gas furnace, 

 discoveries have yet to be made which will, 

 at the same time, startle and benefit the 

 world. Our experiments, however, must 

 not be simply tentative; they must be be- 

 gun, continued, and ended in accordance 

 with physical laws, which will never change, 

 whatever may be the ultimate revolution 

 in scientific theories. By heat the elements 

 can be separated, and by the same agency 

 they can be combined; the more perfect, 

 therefore, our knowledge of chemical action 

 and reaction, the more likely are our re- 

 searches to terminate in satisfactory re- 

 sults. LOWE Nature-Studies, p. 10 (Hum.. 

 1888.) 



1257. FLAVORS AND ODORS CHEM- 

 ICALLY PRODUCED Fruit -sirups Old 

 Wines and Whiskies Successfully Imitated. 

 The delicious fruit-sirups expressly pre- 

 pared from the fruits themselves, which we 

 find advertised at the alleged soda-fountains, 

 are, in most cases, the products of the chem- 

 ical laboratory. The achievements of syn- 

 thetic conquest have been pushed even to 

 a greater extent, and we find it possible to 

 produce mixtures of ethers and essential 

 oils, the pure fabrications of the chemist, 

 which resemble in every respect the natural 

 products arising from the aging of whisky 

 and wine. With a half-dozen bottles of es- 



sences which you may purchase in Cincin- 

 nati, a barrel of alcohol which you can get 

 from one of Uncle Sam's bonded warehouses, 

 and a pound of burnt sugar which you can 

 make yourself, you can in a few hours make 

 two barrels and a half of ten-year-old Bour- 

 bon. In this day, when great universities 

 spring up in a night, with all the facilities 

 and appointments which centuries were sup- 

 posed to produce, it is not so strange to 

 find the chemist also annihilating time 

 and obliterating space. WILEY Relations 

 of Chemistry to Industrial Progress (Ad- 

 dress' at Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind., 

 1896, p. 30). 



1258. FLIGHT OF BIRDS A NATURAL 

 GIFT Young Swallows Fly Perfectly with No 

 Instruction. Mr. Spalding's observations 

 on this point are conclusive as to birds 

 (Nature, xii, 507) : 



" Birds," he says, " do not learn to fly. 

 Two years ago I shut up five unfledged swal- 

 lows in a small box, not much larger than 

 the nest from which they were taken. The 

 little box, which had a wire front, was 

 hung on the wall near the nest, and the 

 young swallows were fed by their parents 

 through the wires. In this confinement, 

 where they could not even extend their 

 wings, they were kept until after they were 

 fully fledged. . . . On going to set the 

 prisoners free, one was found dead. . . . 

 The remaining four were allowed to escape 

 one at a time. Two of these were percep- 

 tibly wavering and unsteady in their flight. 

 One of them, after a flight of some ninety 

 yards, disappeared among some trees." No. 

 3 and No. 4 "never flew against anything, 

 nor was there, in their avoiding objects, 

 any appreciable difference between them and 

 the old birds. No. 3 swept round the Wel- 

 lingtonia, and No. 4 rose over the hedge, 

 just as we see the old swallows doing every 

 hour of the day. I have this summer veri- 

 fied these observations. Of two swallows 

 I had similarly confined, one, on being set 

 free, flew a yard or two close to the ground, 

 rose in the direction of a beech-tree, which 

 it gracefully avoided ; it was seen for a con- 

 siderable time sweeping round the beeches 

 and performing magnificent evolutions in 

 the air high above them. The other, which 

 was observed to beat the air with its wings 

 more than usual, was soon lost to sight 

 behind some trees. Titmice, tomtits, and 

 wrens I have made the subjects of similar 

 observations, and with similar results." 

 JAMES Psychology, vol. ii, ch. 24, p. 406. 

 (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



1259. FLOOD AT TTVOLI Church and 



Dwellings Destroyed Ancient Pagan Tem- 

 ple Spared. The younger Pliny, it will be 

 remembered, describes a flood on the Anio, 

 which destroyed woods, rocks, and houses, 

 with the most sumptuous villas and works 

 of art. For four of five centuries consec- 

 utively, this "headlong stream," as Horace 

 truly called it, has often remained within 



