SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Isolation 

 Knives 



the sufferings. On the other hand there 

 seem to be some who find the retention of 

 the latter the easier of the two. This fact 

 should not be forgotten in reading the nar- 

 rative of early hardships which some recent 

 autobiographies have given us. SULLY Illu- 

 sions, ch. 10, p. 264. (A., 1897.) 



1782. JUDGMENT OF INTENSITY 

 OF SENSATION Quantitative, but with No 

 Degrees Merely " More " or " Less." If 

 we compare with each other two different 

 sensations of the same modality we are un- 

 doubtedly able to pass judgment regarding 

 their intensities. Our judgment runs either: 

 the sensations are of equal intensity, or, 

 they are not of equal intensity. The midday 

 sun we assert to be brighter than the moon, 

 the roar of a cannon louder than the crack 

 of a pistol, a hundredweight heavier than a 

 pound. These comparative judgments are 

 taken directly from sensation. We really 

 state in them merely this: that the sensa- 

 tions which the sunshine, the cannon, and 

 the hundredweight arouse in us are more 

 intensive than the sensations which we have 

 from the moon, a pistol-shot, or a pound- 

 weight. There is therefore possible a quan- 

 titative comparison of sensations. We can 

 say of two sensations that they are of equal 

 intensity, or that this one is of a greater or 

 less intensity than the other. There our 

 measurement of sensation ordinarily rests. 

 We are not able to say how much stronger 

 or how much weaker one is than another. 

 We cannot estimate in the least whether 

 the sun is a hundred or a thousand times 

 brighter than the moon, the cannon a hun- 

 dred or a thousand times louder than the 

 pistol. Our ordinary measurement of sen- 

 sation tells us only of " equality," of a 

 " more " or of a " less," never of a " so much 

 more " or " less." WUNDT Psychology, lect. 

 2, p. 17. (Son. & Co., 1896.) 



1783. KAIAK VERSUS OCEAN 



STEAMER What is more beautiful than 

 an ocean steamer, with skin of steel drawn 

 over ribs of steel and closed above against 

 the intrusion of the waves ? Have you never 

 seen the picture of the Eskimo, still in the 

 Stone Age, who, over a framework of drift- 

 wood or whale's rib, stretches a covering 

 of sealskin and learned therein to defy the 

 waves hundreds of years ago? MASON The 

 Birth of Invention (Address at Centenary of 

 American Patent System, Washington, D. 

 C., 1891, Proceedings of the Congress, p. 

 407). 



1784. KINDRED WITH THE DIVINE 

 Kinship with Beasts Cannot Satisfy the 

 Soul Exaltation ~by Influence of Higher In- 

 telligence The Dog and His Master. They 

 that deny a God destroy a man's nobility; 

 for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by 

 his body; and if he be not of kin to God by 

 his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. 

 It destroys likewise magnanimity, and the 

 raising of human nature; for take an ex- 

 ample of a dog, and mark what a generosity 



and courage he will put on when he finds 

 himself maintained by a man, who to him 

 is instead of a god, or " melior natura"; 

 which courage is manifestly such as that 

 creature, without that confidence of a better 

 nature than his own, could never attain. 

 So man, when he resteth and assureth him- 

 self upon divine protection and favor, gath- 

 ereth a force and faith, which human nature 

 in itself could not obtain; therefore, as 

 atheism is in all respects hateful, so in this, 

 that it depriveth human nature of the means 

 to exalt itself above human frailty. 

 BACON Essays, essay 16, Of Atheism, p. 61. 

 (W. L. A.) 



1785. KINGDOM, DISTINCT, RE- 

 QUIRED FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL MAN 

 Gulf between Man and Ape. Mr. Mivart 

 has truly said that, with regard to their 

 total value in Nature, the difference between 

 man and ape transcends the difference be- 

 tween ape and blade of grass. I should be 

 disposed to go further and say that while 

 for zoological man you can hardly erect a 

 distinct family from that of the chimpanzee 

 and orang, on the other hand, for psycho- 

 logical man you must erect a distinct king- 

 dom; nay, you must even dichotomize the 

 universe, putting man on one side and all 

 things else on the other. FISKE Through 

 Nature to God, pt. ii, ch. 5, p. 82. (H. M. & 

 Co., 1900.) 



1786. KITCHEN, THE, A CHEMICAL 

 LABORATORY Crude Materials Trans- 

 formed for Food. The kitchen is a chemi- 

 cal laboratory in which are conducted a 

 number of chemical processes by which our 

 food is converted from its crude state to a 

 condition more suitable for digestion and 

 nutrition, and made more agreeable to the 

 palate. WILLIAMS Chemistry of Cookery, 

 ch. 1, p. 4. (A., 1900.) 



1787. KLEPTOMANIA A REAL IN- 

 SANITY Hoarding of Useless Treasures. 

 Kleptomania, as it is called, is an uncon- 

 trollable impulse to appropriate, occurring 

 in persons whose " associations of ideas " 

 would naturally all be of a counteracting 

 sort. Kleptomaniacs often promptly re- 

 store or permit to be restored what they 

 have taken; so the impulse need not be to 

 keep, but only to take. But elsewhere 

 hoarding complicates the result. A gentle- 

 man with whose case I am acquainted was 

 discovered, after his death, to have a hoard 

 in his barn of all sorts of articles, mainly 

 of a trumpery sort, but including pieces of 

 silver which he had stolen from his own 

 dining-room, and utensils which he had 

 stolen from his own kitchen, and for which 

 he had afterward bought substitutes with 

 his own money. JAMES Psychology, vol. ii, 

 ch. 24, p. 425. (H. H. & Co., 1899.) 



1 788. KNIVES OF SHARKS' TEETH 



Gain Attending the Iron Blade. It will 

 be found in the study of industrial knives 

 that in the long run they become the 



