Law 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



376 



spect to combination and affinity, is reduced 

 to system under laws of this kind, and 

 of this kind only. Because, altho there 

 is a probability that electric or galvanic 

 force is the cause or one of the causes of 

 the series of facts exhibited in chemical phe- 

 nomena, this is as yet no better than a 

 probability, and the laws of chemistry stand 

 no higher than facts which by observation 

 and experiment are found to follow certain 

 rules. ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 2, p. 40. 

 (Burt.) 



1838. LAW CONSISTENT WITH 

 DESIGN Will Adapts Natural Laws to Its 

 Purpose. Our own experience shows that 

 the universal reign of law is perfectly con- 

 sistent with a power of making those laws 

 subservient to design even when the knowl- 

 edge of them is but slight, and the power 

 over them slighter still. How much more 

 easy, how much more natural, to conceive 

 that the same universality is compatible 

 with the exercise of that Supreme Will be- 

 fore which all are known and to which all 

 are servants! What difficulty in this view 

 remains in the idea of the Supernatural? 

 Is it any other than the difficulty in be- 

 lieving in the existence of a Supreme Will 

 in a living God? ARGYLL Reign of Law, ch. 

 1, p. 13. (Burt.) 



1839. LAW DOES NOT NEGLECT 

 THE LEAST Gravitation Holds Even Micro- 

 scopic Germs. The influence of gravity upon 

 bacteria in the air may be observed in vari- 

 ous ways, in addition to its action within 

 a limited area like a sewer or a room. Mi- 

 quel found in some investigations in Paris 

 that, whereas on the Rue de Rivoli 750 germs 

 were present in a cubic meter, yet at the 

 summit of the Pantheon only 28 were found 

 in the same quantity of air. At the tops of 

 mountains air is germ-free, and bacteria 

 increase in proportion to descent. As Tyn- 

 dall has pointed out, even ultramicroscopic 

 cells obey the law of gravitation. This is 

 equally true in the limited areas of a labora- 

 tory or warehouse and in the open air. NEW- 

 MAN Bacteria, ch. 3, p. 106. (G. P. P., 1899.) 



1840. LAW EXALTS PHENOMENA 



The Same Smoke Column Blue and Red. 

 Touched by the wand of law, the dross of 

 facts becomes gold, the meanest being raised 

 thereby to brotherhood with the highest. 

 Thus the smoke of an Irish cabin lifts our 

 speculations to the heavenly dome. . . 

 The selfsame column of smoke may be pro- 

 jected against a bright and a dark portion 

 of the same cloud, and thus made to appear 

 blue and red at the same time. The blue 

 belongs to the light reflected from the smoke; 

 the red to the light transmitted through 

 it. In like manner the hues of the atmos- 

 phere are not due to coloring matter, but to 

 the fact of its being a turbid medium. 

 Through this we look at the blackness of 

 unillumined space and see the blue at the 

 western heaven at sunset, and meet that 

 light which steeps the clouds of evening in 



orange and crimson dyes. TYNDALL Hours 

 of Exercise in the Alps (Notes, etc., Kil- 

 larney), p. 420. (A., 1898.) 



1841. LAW HOLDS EVEN THE 

 WANDERING COMETS- They Move Obedi- 

 ent to the Primal Impulse and Gravitation 

 Comets of Solar System, Perhaps Ex- 

 pelled from Giant Planets. Since these 

 comets are associated in so peculiar a man- 

 ner with the giant planets [Jupiter, Saturn, 

 Uranus, and Neptune] of the solar system, 

 may it not be that they bear a relation to 

 these planets somewhat resembling that 

 which the large comets bear to the suns 

 which people space? As the large comets 

 would seem to have been expelled from these 

 suns, may not the small comets have been 

 expelled from the giant planets? We need 

 not necessarily assume that these giant 

 planets are still in the active and sunlike 

 state necessary, we may suppose, for the 

 expulsion of comets. ... It may be that 

 the birth of the comet families of the giant 

 planets took 'place in far distant eras when 

 these orbs were not merely, as now, instinct 

 with an intense heat, but also aglow with 

 light, so as to present, when viewed from 

 other systems, the aspect which the small 

 companions of unequal double stars present 

 to our telescopists. PROCTOR Expanse of 

 Heaven, p. 156. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



1842. LAW IN LEAF-MOVEMENTS 



Leaves Vertical in Sleeping Plants. 

 Leaves, when they go to sleep, move either 

 upwards or downwards, or, in the case of the 

 leaflets of compound leaves, forwards, that 

 is, towards the apex of the leaf , or backwards, 

 that is, towards its base; or, again, they 

 may rotate on their own axes without mov- 

 ing either upwards or downwards. But in 

 almost every case the plane of the blade 

 is so placed as to stand nearly or quite verti- 

 cally at night. Therefore the apex, or the 

 base, or either lateral edge may be directed 

 towards the zenith. Moreover, the upper 

 surface of each leaf, and more especially of 

 each leaflet, is often brought into close con- 

 tact with that of the opposite one ; and this 

 is sometimes effected by singularly compli- 

 cated movements. This fact suggests that 

 the upper surface requires more protection 

 than the lower one. DARWIN Power of Move- 

 ment in Plants, ch. 6, p. 281. (A., 1900.) 



1843. LAW INVARIABLE UNDER 

 SAME CONDITIONS Variable When Condi- 

 tions Vary Purpose Adapted to Changed 

 Relations. We hear of rigid and univer- 

 sal sequence necessary invariable; of un- 

 broken chains of cause and effect, no link of 

 which can, in the nature of things, be ever 

 broken. And this idea grows upon the mind, 

 until in some confused manner it is held as 

 casting out the idea of purpose in creation, 

 and inconsistent with the element of will. 

 If it be so, the difficulty cannot be evaded 

 by denying the uniformity, any more than 

 the universality, of law. It is perfectly true 

 that every law is in its own nature invari- 



