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SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



310 



extremely complicated structure, being com- 

 posed of a number of different substances 

 of unequal hardness. The consequence of 

 this is that they wear away at different 

 rates; and, hence, the surface of each 

 grinder is always as uneven as that of a 

 good millstone. HUXLEY American Ad- 

 dresses, lect. 3, p. 76. (A., 1898.) 



1 5 1 0. HORSES , EXTINCT , IN AMER- 

 ICA BEFORE COLUMBUS It is a singular 

 fact that, altho no horse inhabited America 

 when discovered by Europeans, yet abun- 

 dance of remains of extinct horses have been 

 found both in North and South America in 

 post-Tertiary and Upper Pliocene deposits; 

 and from these an almost continuous series 

 of modified forms can be traced in the Ter- 

 tiary formation, till we reach, at the very 

 base of the series, a primitive form so un- 

 like our perfected animal that, had we not 

 the intermediate links, few persons would 

 believe that the one was the ancestor of the 

 other. WALLACE Darwinism, ch. 13, p. 260. 

 (Hum., 1889.) 



1511. HOST OF MINUTE PARTICLES, 

 INNUMERABLE Unbroken Blue of Sky. 

 Small in mass, the vastness in point of num- 

 ber of the particles of our sky may be in- 

 ferred from the continuity of its light. It is 

 not in broken patches, nor at scattered 

 points, that the heavenly azure is revealed. 

 To the observer on the summit of Mont 

 Blanc, the blue is as uniform and coherent 

 as if it formed the surface of the most close- 

 grained solid. A marble dome would not 

 exhibit a stricter continuity. . . . By 

 day, this light quenches the stars; even by 

 moonlight it is able to exclude from vision 

 all stars between the fifth and the eleventh 

 magnitude. It may be likened to a noise, 

 and the feebler stellar radiance to a whisper 

 drowned by the noise. TYNDALL Fragments 

 of Science, vol. ii, ch. 8, p. 122. (A., 1897.) 



1512. HUES OF ANIMALS IN OCEAN 

 DEPTHS OFTEN RICH AND BRILLIANT 



Agassiz, in his narrative of the voyage of 

 the " Blake," records that " some of the 

 deep-sea corals are scarlet, deep flesh-col- 

 ored, pinkish orange, and of other colors," 

 and in referring to the Gorgonian Irido- 

 gorgia he says : " The species are remark- 

 able for their elegance of form and for the 

 brilliant luster and iridescent colors of the 

 axis, in some of a bright emerald green, in 

 others like burnished gold or mother-of- 

 pearl." HICKSON Fauna of the Deep Sea, 

 ch. 4, p. 66. (A., 1894.) 



1513. HUMANITY, ASCENDING 

 SCALE OF The Highest Man Serves Distant 

 Ends. Within the psychic life due to the 

 cerebrum itself the same general distinction 

 obtains, between considerations of the more 

 immediate and considerations of the more 

 remote. In all ages the man whose deter- 

 minations are swayed by reference to the 

 most distant ends has been held to possess 

 the highest intelligence. The tramp who 



lives from hour to hour; the bohemian 

 whose engagements are from day to day; 

 the bachelor who builds but for a single 

 life; the father who acts for another gen- 

 eration; the patriot who thinks of a whole 

 community and many generations; and 

 finally, the philosopher and saint whose 

 cares are for humanity and for eternity 

 these range themselves in an unbroken hier- 

 archy, wherein each successive grade results 

 from an increased manifestation of the spe- 

 cial form of action by which the cerebral 

 centers are distinguished from all below 

 them. JAMES Psychology, vol. i, ch. 2, p. 

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



1514. HUMANITY DETHRONED Athe- 

 ism and Materialism Result. Once de- 

 throne humanity, regard it as a mere local 

 incident in an endless and aimless series of 

 cosmical changes, and you arrive at a doc- 

 trine which, under whatever specious name 

 it may be veiled, is at bottom neither more 

 nor less than atheism. On its metaphysical 

 side atheism is the denial of anything 

 psychical in the universe outside of human 

 consciousness; and it is almost inseparably 

 associated with the materialistic interpreta- 

 tion of human consciousness as the ephem- 

 eral result of a fleeting collocation of par- 

 ticles of matter. Viewed upon this side, it 

 is easy to show that atheism is very bad 

 metaphysics, while the materialism which 

 goes with it is utterly condemned by modern 

 science. FISKE Destiny of Man, ch. 1, p. 12. 

 (H. M. &Co., 1900.) 



1515. HUMANITY IN ACCORD WITH 

 HIGHER LAW Wholesome Restrictions on 

 Labor. But as it needed the practical re- 

 sults of restriction distress, discontent, 

 and the danger of civil commotion to bring 

 home to the national understanding the 

 economic error of the old commercial sys- 

 tems [the Corn Laws, etc.] ; so also as re- 

 gards the grievous results of unrestricted 

 competition in human labor, our only effect- 

 ive teaching has been that of hard experi- 

 ence. The doctrines of Adam Smith, when 

 applied here, were a hindrance and not a 

 help. The political economists were, almost 

 to a man, hostile to restrictive legislation. 

 They did not see what would be the working 

 of natural law upon the human will, when 

 that will was exposed to overpowering mo- 

 tives under debased conditions of under- 

 standing and of heart. They did not see 

 the higher law which Parliament was assert- 

 ing when it was driven, by sheer instinctive 

 horror of actual results, to prohibit " free " 

 laborers from disposing as they pleased of 

 the labor of their children. ARGYLL Reign 

 of Law, ch. 7, p. 216. (Burt.) 



1516. HUMANITY RESULTS IN UTIL- 

 ITY Anesthetics Deaden Pain for Patient 

 Give Surgeon Calmness and Confidence. 

 Anesthetics were first used in dentistry in 

 1846, the agent being ether, while chloro- 

 form, for more severe surgical operations, 



