405 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Limits 

 Logic 



which are now quite distinct, are connected 

 by the Bison prisons, while between our 

 brown bear and the grizzly bear of the 

 Rocky Mountains a series of links has been 

 discovered among the abundant remains in 

 the bone-caves. AVEBURY Prehistoric Times, 

 ch. 9, p. 289. (A., 1900.) 



1978. LISBON, EARTHQUAKE OF 



Sixty Thousand Persons Perish in Six 

 Minutes. In no part of the volcanic region 

 of southern Europe has so tremendous an 

 earthquake occurred in modern times as 

 that which began on the 1st of November, 

 1755, at Lisbon. A sound of thunder was 

 heard underground, and immediately after- 

 wards a violent shock threw down the 

 greater part of that city. In the course of 

 about six minutes sixty thousand persons 

 perished. The sea first retired and laid the 

 bar dry; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet 

 or more above its ordinary level. The moun- 

 tains of Arrabida, Estrella, Julio, Marvan, 

 and Cintra, being some of the largest in 

 Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as it 

 were, from their very foundations ; and some 

 of them opened at their summits, which 

 were split and rent in a wonderful manner, 

 huge masses of them being thrown down 

 into the subjacent valleys. Flames are re- 

 lated to have issued from these mountains, 

 which are supposed to have been electric; 

 they are also said to have smoked, but vast 

 clouds of dust may have given rise to this 

 appearance. LYELL Principles of Geology, 

 bk. ii, ch. 29, p. 495. (A., 1854.) 



1979. LOCATION OF OBJECTS IN 

 SPACE Due to Joint Action of the Two Eyes. 

 With the reference of objects to different 

 distances in space, the world of perception is 

 placed outside of us, and is differentiated 

 into an infinite diversity of content. Altho 

 the spatial relations which we ascribe to 

 external objects may at the outset often be 

 incomplete and deceptive, still the decisive 

 step has been taken with the very introduc- 

 tion of those relations. The ceaseless activ- 

 ity of our sense-perception is constantly at 

 work in the endeavor to perfect our ideas. 

 It furnishes us with new ideational groups, 

 and corrects the most serious errors in those 

 already acquired. All the senses cooperate 

 in this work, each revising and supplement- 

 ing the others. But it is primarily the 

 common action of the two coordinate organs 

 of vision to which we owe the greatest part 

 of our ideational development. There are 

 no other organs which so directly supple- 

 ment and correct each other's perceptions, 

 and which thus give so great an impulse to 

 the fusion of separate perceptions into a 

 single idea, as the two eyes. WTJNDT Psy- 

 chology, lect. 12, p. 181. (Son. & Co.. 1896.) 



1980. LOCKJAW, OR TETANUS, IN 

 GRASP OF SCIENCE Infection, Insignifi- 

 cant, Producing Terrible Result Cure by 

 Opposing Evil in Its Stronghold. Tetanus 

 occurs in man and horses most commonly, 

 tho it may affect other animals. There is 



usually a wound, often an insignificant one, 

 which may occur in any part of the body. 

 The popular idea that a severe cut between 

 the thumb and the index-finger leads to 

 tetanus is without scientific foundation. As 

 a matter of fact, the wound is nearly always 

 on one or other of the limbs, and is infected 

 simply because they come more into contact 

 with soil and dust than does the trunk. It 

 is not the locality of the wound nor its size 

 that affects the disease. A etit-with a dirty 

 knife, a gash in the foot from the prong of a 

 gardener's fork, the bite of an insect, or 

 even the prick of a thorn has before now 

 set up tetanus. Wounds which are jagged, 

 and occurring in absorptive tissues, are 

 those most fitted to allow the entrance of 

 the bacillus. The wound forms a local 

 manufactory, so to speak, of the bacillus 

 and its secreted poisons; the bacillus al- 

 ways remains in the wound, but the toxins 

 may pass throughout the body, and are 

 especially absorbed by the cells of the cen- 

 tral nervous system, and thus give rise to 

 the spasms which characterize the disease. 

 . . . Evidence has recently been forth- 

 coming at the Pasteur Institute to support 

 the theory that tetanus is a nervous disease, 

 more or less allied to rabies, and is best 

 treated by intracerebral injections of anti- 

 toxin, which then has an opportunity of op- 

 posing the toxins at their favorite site. 

 NEWMAN Bacteria, ch. 5, p. 168. (Gr. P. P., 

 1899.) 



1981. LOCOMOTION, PRIMITIVE 

 Men as Carriers First Carriage in Eng- 

 land First Stage-coaches. In all previous 

 ages the only modes of traveling or of con- 

 veying goods for long distances were by 

 employing either men or animals as the car- 

 riers. Wherever the latter were not used 

 all loads had to be carried by men, as is still 

 the case over a large part of Africa, and as 

 was the case over almost the whole of 

 America before its discovery by the Span- 

 iards. 



But throughout Europe and Asia the 

 horse was domesticated in very early times, 

 and was used for riding and in drawing war 

 chariots; and throughout the Middle Ages 

 packhorses were in universal use for carry- 

 ing various kinds of goods and produce, and 

 saddle-horses for riding. All journeys were 

 then made on horseback, and it was in com- 

 paratively recent times that wheeled ve- 

 hicles for traveling in came into general use 

 in England. The very first carriage waa 

 made for Queen Elizabeth in 1568; the first 

 that plied for hire in London were in 1625, 

 and the first stage-coaches in 1659. WAL- 

 LACE The Wonderful Century, ch. 1, p. 5. 

 (D. M. & Co., 1899.) 



1982. LOGIC AND SCIENCE Inva- 

 riability of Natural Law. There are scien- 

 tific men who assert that the interposition 

 of Providence is impossible and prayer an 

 absurdity, because the laws of Nature are 

 proved invariable. Inferences are drawn not 

 so much from particular sciences as from 



