307 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Heredity 

 History 



in the descendant; the puppy of the set- 

 ting-dog squats down and sets untaught 

 the educational trick of the parent is mys- 

 teriously transmuted into an original prin- 

 ciple in the offspring. The adaptation which 

 takes place in the forms and constitution of 

 plants and animals when placed in circum- 

 stances different from their ordinary ones is 

 equally striking. The woody plant of a warm- 

 er climate when transplanted into a colder 

 frequently exchanges its ligneous stem for 

 a herbaceous one, as if in anticipation of 

 the killing frosts of winter; and, dying to 

 . the ground at the close of autumn, shoots 

 up again in spring. The dog, transported 

 from a temperate into a frigid region, ex- 

 changes his covering of hair for a covering 

 of wool ; when brought back again to his 

 former habitat the wool is displaced by the 

 original hair. And hence, and from similar 

 instances, the derivation of an argument, 

 good so far as it goes, for changes in adap- 

 tation to altered circumstances of the or- 

 ganization of plants and animals, and for 

 the improvability of instinct. MILLER The 

 Old Red Sandstone, ch. 3, p. 36. (G. & L., 

 1851.) 



1494. HEREDITY, UNIVERSAL REC- 

 OGNITION OF The transmission of charac- 

 teristics of species and race is admitted by 

 everybody who deals with the body or the 

 soul. Nobody fears to admit within these 

 limits the fatality of birth. It is thus that 

 every historian refers to the national char- 

 acter in explaining the events in the lives 

 of a people, recognizing its persistence, and 

 pronouncing the consequences often inevi- 

 table. The French of this day recognize 

 themselves in the portrait of the Gauls as 

 drawn by Julius Csesar. The modern Greeks 

 are in many respects the same as those 

 whom Demosthenes addressed. If you take 

 a young savage whose parents were hunters, 

 vain will be your efforts to cultivate him 

 and adapt him to the habits of civilized 

 life. The voice of his ancestor speaks to 

 him, incessantly recalling him to the in- 

 stinct and adventures of forest life. 



Heredity is the result of a very general 

 law, by virtue of which all the anatomical 

 elements of the body possess the property 

 of giving direct birth to similar elements, 

 or of determining in their own vicinity a 

 generation of elements of the same kind 

 (Littre et Robin). The phenomena of nu- 

 trition depend upon this same law, by vir- 

 tue of which the human body, incessantly 

 renewed, remains always identical with it- 

 self from the redistribution of atomic ele- 

 ments. LORIN General View of the Laws 

 of Heredity (Thesis for the Degree in Medi- 

 cine, 1S75). 



1495. HEROISM AND ASCETICISM IN 

 DAILY LIFE Preparation for Unforeseen 

 Emergency. It is not simply particular 

 lines of discharge, but also general forms 

 of discharge, that seem to be grooved out 

 by habit in the brain. Just as, if we let 



our emotions evaporate, they get into a way 

 of evaporating, so there is reason to sup.- 

 pose that if we often flinch from making 

 an effort, before we know it the effort- 

 making capacity will be gone, and that if 

 we suffer the wandering of our attention, 

 presently it will wander all the time. . . . 

 As a final practical maxim relative to these 

 habits of the will, we may, then, offer some- 

 thing like this: Keep the faculty of effort 

 alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise 

 every day. That is, be systematically as- 

 cetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, 

 do every day or two something for no other 

 reason than that you would rather not do 

 it, so that when the hour of dire need draws 

 nigh it may find you not unnerved and 

 untrained to stand the test. Asceticism of 

 this sort is like the insurance which a man 

 pays on his house and goods. The tax does 

 him no good at the time, and possibly may 

 never bring him a return. But if the fire 

 does come, his having paid it will be his 

 salvation from ruin. So with the man 

 who has daily inured himself to habits of 

 concentrated attention, energetic volition, 

 and self-denial in unnecessary things. He 

 will stand like a tower when everything 

 rocks around him, and when his softer fel- 

 low mortals are winnowed like chaff in the 

 blast. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 4, p. 

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



1496. HIGHWAYS, MODERN, FOLLOW 

 ANCIENT BEACHES The "Ridge Road." 

 Long curving ridges of gravel having the 

 appearance of great railroad embankments, 

 following the general trend of the shores 

 of Lakes Ontario and Erie, but usually at 

 a distance of several miles from their pres- 

 ent borders, were noticed at an early day in 

 the settlement of New York, Ohio, and On- 

 tario, and correctly interpreted as being the 

 records of previous high-water stages of the 

 lakes they encircle. These ridges became 

 highways of travel as civilization advanced, 

 and gave origin to the term " ridge road," 

 still to be seen on local maps of the region 

 referred, to. These ridges and other associ- 

 ated records have claimed the attention of 

 geologists and others, and have been made 

 the subject of special inquiry. The terri- 

 tory traversed by them is so extensive, how- 

 ever, that their study is still far from com- 

 plete. RUSSELL Lakes of North America, 

 ch. 6, p. 96. (G. & Co., 1895.) 



1497. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY 



Their Provinces Distinct. In the first place 

 I have discarded the title of the " doctrine 

 of creation," because my present business 

 is not with the question why the objects 

 which constitute Nature came into exist- 

 ence, but w r hen they came into existence and 

 in what order. This is as strictly a historic- 

 al question as the question when the An- 

 gles and the Jutes invaded England, and 

 whether they preceded or followed the Ro- 

 mans. But the question about creation is 

 a philosophical problem, and one which can- 



