Instinct 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



346 



New Holland were all discovered in the 

 early half of the sixteenth century. . . . 

 The Pacific no longer appeared as it had 

 done to Magellan, a desert waste; it was 

 now animated by islands, which, however, 

 for want of exact astronomical observations, 

 appeared to have no fixed position, but 

 floated from place to place over the charts. 

 The Pacific remained for a long time the ex- 

 clusive theater of the enterprises of the 

 Spaniards and Portuguese. It was not until 

 the Dutch power acquired the ascendency in 

 the Moluccas that Australia began to 

 emerge from its former obscurity and to 

 assume a definite form in the eyes of ge- 

 ographers. In a short space of time and in 

 continuous connection, two-thirds of the 

 earth's surface were opened to the appre- 

 hension of men, in consequence of the sud- 

 denly awakened desire to reach the wide, the 

 unknown, and the remote regions of our globe. 

 An enlarged insight into the nature and 

 the laws of physical forces, into the dis- 

 tribution of heat over the earth's surface, 

 the abundance of vital organisms and the 

 limits of their distribution, was developed 

 simultaneously with this extended knowl- 

 edge of land and sea. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, 

 Tol. ii, pt. ii, p. 272. (H., 1897.) 



1692. INSPIRATION NEEDED IN 

 SCIENCE Knowledge Supplemented by Re- 

 flection. In his efforts to cross the common 

 bourn of the known and the unknown, the 

 effective force of the man of science must 

 depend, to a great extent, upon his acquired 

 knowledge. But knowledge alone will not 

 do; a stored memory will not suffice; in- 

 spiration must lend its aid. Scientific in- 

 spiration, however, is usually, if not always, 

 the fruit of long reflection of patiently 

 " intending the mind," as Newton phrased 

 it, and as Copernicus, Newton, and Darwin 

 practised it, until outer darkness yields a 

 glimmer, which in due time opens out into 

 perfect intellectual day. TYNDALI, Frag- 

 ments of Science, vol. i, ch. 5, p. 132. (A., 

 1897.) 



1693. INSPIRATION OF GENIUS 

 Compared to' the Gift of the Spirit (John Hi, 

 8) The Joy of Discovery The "Eureka" 

 of Archimedes. Working backwards from a 

 limited number of phenomena, genius, by its 

 own expansive force, reaches a conception 

 which covers them all. There is no more 

 wonderful performance of the intellect than 

 this; but we can render no account of it. 

 Like the Scriptural gift of the Spirit, no 

 man can tell whence it cometh. The passage 

 from fact to principle is sometimes slow, 

 sometimes rapid, and at all times a source 

 of intellectual joy. When rapid, the pleas- 

 ure is concentrated and becomes a kind of 

 ecstasy or intoxication. To any one who has 

 experienced this pleasure, even in a moder- 

 ate degree, the action of Archimedes when 

 he quitted the bath, and ran naked, crying 

 *' Eureka ! " through the streets of Syracuse, 

 becomes intelligible. TYNDALL Lectures on- 

 Light, lect. 2, p. 47. (A., 1898.) 



1694. INSTABILITY OF THE EARTH 



The Eruption of Krakatoa Felt around 

 the Globe The Dust Thrown into the At- 

 mosphere Would Bury Washington Monu- 

 ment. The eruption of Krakatoa occurred 

 in 1883, and it will be remembered the 

 air-wave started by the explosion was felt 

 around the globe, and that probably owing 

 to the dust and water-vapor blown into the 

 atmosphere, the sunsets even in America 

 became of that extraordinary crimson we all 

 remember [as occurring at that time] ; and, 

 coincidently, that dim reddish halo made 

 its appearance about the sun the world 

 over. . . . Very careful estimates of the 

 amount of ashes ejected have been made; 

 and tho most of the heavier particles are 

 known to have fallen into the sea within a 

 few miles, a certain portion the lightest 

 was probably carried by the explosion far 

 above the lower strata of the atmosphere, to 

 descend so slowly that some of it may still 

 be there. Of this lighter class the most 

 careful estimates must be vague; but ac- 

 cording to the report of the official investi- 

 gation by the Dutch Government, that which 

 remained floating is something enormous. 

 An idea of its amount may be gained by 

 supposing these impalpable and invisible 

 particles to condense again from the upper 

 sky, and to pour down on the highest edifice 

 in the country, the Washington Monument. 

 If the dust were allowed to spread out on all 

 sides, till the pyramidal slope was so flat as 

 to be permanent, the capstone of the monu- 

 ment would not only be buried before the 

 supply was exhausted, but buried as far be- 

 low the surface as that pinnacle is now 

 above it. LANGLEY Neiv Astronomy, ch. 6, 

 p. 181. (H. M. & Co., 1896.) 



1695. INSTINCT AND REASON 



Human Organism Like Keyed Instrument 

 Lower Animal Like Barrel-organ Cater- 

 pillar and Its Hammock. Thus, then, while 

 the human organism may be likened to a 

 keyed instrument, from which any music it 

 is capable of producing can be called forth 

 at the will of the performer, we may com- 

 pare a bee or any other insect to a barrel- 

 organ, which plays with the greatest exact- 

 ness a certain number of tunes that are set 

 upon it, but can do nothing else. The fol- 

 lowing fact, mentioned by Pierre Huber, af- 

 fords a curious example of the purely auto- 

 matic nature of instinctive action : 



There is a caterpillar that makes a very 

 complicated hammock, the construction of 

 which may be divided into six stages. One 

 of these caterpillars which had completed 

 its own hammock, having been transferred 

 to another carried only to its third stage, 

 completed this also by reperforming the 

 fourth, fifth, and sixth stages. But another 

 caterpillar taken out of a hammock which 

 had been only carried to its third stage, and 

 put into one already completed, appeared 

 much embarrassed, and seemed forced to go 

 back to the point at which it had itself left 

 off, executing anew the fourth, fifth, and 



