Lnives 

 Lnowledge 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



carver's and engraver's tools, the drawing- 

 knife, the spoke-shave, the pjane, and the 

 planing-mill. In some styles of the last- 

 named, however, the operative part of the 

 machine is, more properly speaking, a ma- 

 chine adz than a knife. Carving in wood 

 and other substances by the American ab- 

 origines differentiated the adz from the 

 knife. It is probable that before the intro- 

 duction of iron into America the adz was 

 used more than the knife in dressing down 

 wood; but when the iron blade came into 

 vogue it was possible for the savage work- 

 man to carve out hollow dishes and boxes 

 and other objects with his knife by simple 

 pressure. Notable exceptions to this are 

 those regions where soft wood came into alli- 

 ance with sharks' teeth and the incisors of 

 rodents. This is shown in all the curved 

 knives of the collections in the United States 

 National Museum from the two hemispheres, 

 especially those from wooded areas. MA- 

 SON The Man's Knife among the North 

 American Indians (Report of U. 8. National 

 Museum for 1897, p. 727). 



1789. KNOWLEDGE ACQUIRED BY 

 LEARNING TO DOUBT Boiling of Food 

 for the Table Cooking of Food Man's Im- 

 memorial Custom. " The process by which 

 food is most commonly prepared for the 

 table boiling is so familiar to every one, 

 and its effects are so uniform and appar- 

 ently so simple, that few, I believe, have 

 taken the trouble to inquire how or in what 

 manner these effects are produced; and 

 whether any, and what, improvements in 

 that branch of cookery are possible. So little 

 has this matter been an object of inquiry 

 that few, very few, indeed, I believe, among 

 the millions of persons who for so many 

 ages have been daily employed in this proc- 

 ess have ever given themselves the trouble 

 to bestow one serious thought upon the sub- 

 ject. 



" The cook knows from experience that if 

 his joint of meat be kept a certain time 

 immersed in boiling water it will be done, 

 as it is called in the language of the 

 kitchen; but if he be asked what is done 

 to it, or how or by what agency the change 

 it has undergone has been effected if he 

 understands the question it is ten to one 

 but he will be embarrassed. If he does not 

 understand he will probably 'answer without 

 hesitation, that * The meat is made tender 

 and eatable by being boiled.' Ask him if the 

 boiling of the water be essential to the proc- 

 ess. He will answer, ' Without doubt.' 

 Push him a little further by asking him 

 whether, were it possible to keep the water 

 equally hot without boiling, the meat would 

 not be cooked as soon and as well as if the 

 water were made to boil. Here it is prob- 

 able he will make the first step towards ac- 

 quiring knowledge by learning to doubt." 

 COUNT RUMFORD, quoted by WILLIAMS in 

 Chemistry of Cookery, ch. 2, p. 16. (A., 

 1900. ) 



1 7 9O. KNOWLEDGE, ANCIENT, OF 

 THE HEAVENS Constellations Gradually 

 Arranged. The primitive Greek sphere had 

 become gradually filled with constellations, 

 without being in any degree considered with 

 relation to the ecliptic. Thus Homer and 

 Hesiod designate by name individual stars 

 and groups; the former mentions the con- 

 stellation of the Bear ( " otherwise known 

 as the Celestial Wain, and which alone never 

 sinks into the bath of Oceanos"), Bootes, 

 and the Dog of Orion; the latter speaks of 

 Sirius and Arcturus, and both refer to the 

 Pleiades, the Hyades, and Orion. Homer's 

 twice-repeated assertion, that the constella- 

 tion of the Bear alone never sinks into the 

 ocean, merely allows us to infer that in his 

 age the Greek sphere did not yet comprise 

 the constellations of Draco, Cepheus, and 

 Ursa Minor, which likewise do not set. The 

 statement does not prove a want of ac- 

 quaintance with the existence of the sepa- 

 rate stars forming these three catasterisms, 

 but simply an ignorance of their arrange- 

 ment into constellations. A long and fre- 

 quently misunderstood passage of Strabo 

 . . . specially proves . . . that in 

 the Greek sphere the stars were only gradu- 

 ally arranged in constellations. Homer has 

 been unjustly accused of ignorance, says 

 Strabo, as if he had known of only one in- 

 stead of two Bears. It is probable that the 

 lesser one had not yet been arranged in a 

 separate group, and that the name did not 

 reach the Hellenes until after the Pheni- 

 cians had specially designated this constel- 

 lation, and made use of it for the purposes 

 of navigation. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. iii, 

 p. 119. (H., 1897.) 



1791. KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF 



Comparison to House and Furniture. 

 Our beliefs must be carefully distinguished 

 from our knowledge; and they seem to me 

 to bear much the same relation to it that 

 our furniture has to the building in which 

 we put it. The walls are or ought to be 

 solid and enduring; so is everything that 

 deserves to be called knowledge. Each stone 

 supports and is supported by the rest; and 

 nothing but a weakness of its foundation 

 or a decay of its material can make our fab- 

 ric of thought uninhabitable. But the be- 

 liefs with which we furnish it have not the 

 same durability. Adapted to meet our tem- 

 porary needs, they may be either poor in 

 material or but slightly put together. A 

 carpet wears out, and, when past shifting 

 and patching, must be replaced by a new 

 one; a table or a chair breaks down, and, 

 after successive repairs, is discarded as no 

 longer serviceable. Or perhaps our require- 

 ments change; and some article which was 

 at first made expressly in accordance with 

 them proves no longer suitable to our 

 needs; so that, finding it in our way, we 

 wish to get rid of it. Some pieces of our 

 furniture, again, originally of more sub- 

 stantial make, have become faded and old- 

 fashioned; but they may be family heir- 



