357 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Intervention 

 Introspection 



to prove it orthodox. However the ecclesi- 

 astical authorities may have intended to 

 deal with others, the fact of his having vio- 

 lated, as they claimed, his earlier promise 

 gave them a reason for coming upon him 

 despite the permissory decree. He was the 

 most shining of all shining marks. To 

 crush him would do more to paralyze inde- 

 pendent philosophical thought, at least 

 within the pale of the church, than any 

 random anathema that Rome could hurl. 



The effect upon all Europe was profound. 

 The faithful, who found themselves in the 

 van of philosophical progress, stopped and 

 drew back. The blight of uncertainty fell 

 upon them. If, after years of free discus- 

 sion, Copernicanism had come to be heresy, 

 inviting the dread visit of the Holy Office, 

 what then might be safely taught and 

 studied ? PARK BENJAMIN Intellectual Rise 

 of Electricity, ch. 12, p. 355. (J. W., 1898.) 



1744. Buffon Recants 



His " Theory of the Earth." Soon after the 

 publication of his " Natural History," in 

 which was included his " Theory of the 

 Earth," [Buffon] received an official letter 

 (January, 1751) from the Sorbonne, or Fac- 

 ulty of Theology in Paris, informing him 

 that fourteen propositions in his works 

 " were reprehensible and contrary to the 

 creed of the church." The first of these 

 obnoxious passages, and the only one re- 

 lating to geology, was as follows : " The 

 waters of the sea have produced the moun- 

 tains and valleys of the land the waters of 

 the heavens, reducing all to a level, will at 

 last deliver the whole land over to the sea, 

 and the sea successively prevailing over the 

 land will leave dry new continents like those 

 which we inhabit." Buffon was invited by 

 the college, in very courteous terms, to send 

 in an explanation, or rather a recantation 

 of his unorthodox opinions. To this he 

 submitted, and a general assembly of the 

 faculty having approved of his " Declara- 

 tion," he was required to publish it in his 

 next work. The document begins with these 

 words : " I declare that I had no intention 

 to contradict the text of Scripture; that I 

 believe most firmly all therein related about 

 the creation, both as to order of time and 

 matter of fact; and I abandon everything 

 in my book respecting the foundation of the 

 earth, and generally all which may be con- 

 trary to the narration of Moses." LYELL 

 Principles of Geology, bk. i, ch. 3. p. 39. (A., 

 1854.) 



1745. INTOXICATION ONE WITH 



INSANITY Difference Only in Duration Poi- 

 son Gradually Eliminated from the Blood. 

 The states of mind temporarily produced 

 by intoxicating agents alcohol, opium, hash- 

 ish, and the like are closely akin to one 

 another in this fundamental character, as 

 they are also to the delirium of fevers or 

 other diseases, which is due to the introduc- 

 tion of a morbid matter into the blood, 

 whereby a zymosis or fermentation of its 



own materials is produced which gives it a 

 poisonous action on the brain. In the sec- 

 ond case, as in the first, the effect is tran- 

 sient, the poison being gradually eliminated 

 from the circulation by the excretory appa- 

 ratus ( including the respiratory organs ) , 

 so that the blood regains its original puri- 

 ty. And it is this temporary character alone 

 which differentiates the mental perversion of 

 intoxication and delirium from that which is 

 persistent in insanity. CARPENTER Mental 

 Physiology, bk. ii, ch. 17, p. 637. (A., 1900.) 



1746. 



Monomania Sea 



Captain Shooting Sailors to Suppress Imagi- 

 nary Mutiny Small Portion of Stimulant 

 Harmful Heredity. The closeness of the 

 affinity between the states of insanity and 

 alcoholic intoxication is further made ap- 

 parent by the extreme readiness with which 

 the balance of reason is disturbed by a small 

 quantity of liquor in those unfortunate in- 

 dividuals in whom there exists a predispo- 

 sition to mental derangement. The power 

 of volitional control being already feeble it 

 is easily overthrown; and the propensities 

 or passions which are always unduly ex- 

 citable are readily aroused into morbid ac- 

 tivity by this provocation, so that a very few 

 glasses of wine or a small quantity of spirits 

 are sufficient to induce what may be re- 

 garded either as a fit of drunkenness or a 

 paroxysm of insanity the two influences 

 concurring to produce the mental disturb- 

 ance which neither of them would have alone 

 sufficed to bring about. Not unfrequently 

 the state thus induced is one of temporary 

 monomania, the mind becoming possessed 

 by a particular emotional state which gov- 

 erns the conduct and leads to the perpetra- 

 tion of atrocious crimes. Thus at least two 

 instances of this kind have occurred within 

 the recollection of the writer in which the 

 captain of a ship, having been thus seized 

 with the belief that his crew was in a state 

 of mutiny,, has killed one of them after 

 another in (as he believed) rightful self- 

 defense. Such a predisposition may arise 

 from previous injury or disease affecting the 

 brain (tropical sunstroke being often al- 

 leged as the cause of it), or it may be in- 

 herited; and it exists in peculiar force in 

 those who have an hereditary tendency to in- 

 sanity derived from drunkenness on the part 

 of the parents. Cases are continually occur- 

 ring in which drunken outrages are commit- 

 ted by individuals thus circumstanced, in 

 whose excuse it is alleged that a very small 

 quantity of liquor is sufficient to inflame 

 their passions and destroy their self-control. 

 CARPENTER Mental Physiology,, ch. 17, p. 

 651. (A., 1900.) 



1747. INTROSPECTION A MARVEL- 

 OUS POWER Evidence of Mental Growth. 

 There is nothing more wonderful in the 

 constitution of our minds than the power 

 we have of standing aside, as it were, for 

 a time from the ordinary channel of our own 

 thoughts and of looking back upon their cur- 



