415 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Man 



the wind. If, on the contrary, I do violence 

 to the foot of a fellow man, the rest of his 

 body instantly responds to the aggression 

 by movements of alarm or defense. The rea- 

 son of this difference is that the man has 

 a nervous system, whilst the tree has none; 

 and the function of the nervous system is 

 to bring each part into harmonious co- 

 operation with every other. JAMES Psy- 

 chology, Tol. i, ch. 1, p. 12. (H. H. & Co., 

 1899.) 



2031 . MAN A UNIVERSAL DWELL- 

 ER ON THE EARTH Unity of the Race. 

 From the earliest times when civilized men 

 began to explore distant regions, they found 

 everywhere other races of men already es- 

 tablished. And this has held true down to 

 the latest acquisitions of discovery. When 

 the New World was discovered by Columbus 

 he found that it must have been a very old 

 world indeed to the human species. Not 

 only every great continent, but, with rare 

 exceptions, even every habitable island has 

 been found peopled by the genus Homo. The 

 explorers might find, and in many cases did 

 actually find, everything else in Nature dif- 

 ferent from the country of their birth. Not 

 a beast, or bird, or plant, not an insect, or a 

 reptile, or a fish, might be the same as those 

 of which they had any previous knowledge. 

 The whole face of Nature might be new and 

 strange but always with this one solitary 

 exception, that everywhere man was com- 

 pelled to recognize himself represented, in- 

 deed, often by people of strange aspect and 

 of strange speech, but by people, neverthe- 

 less, exhibiting all the unmistakable charac- 

 ters of the human race. ARGYLL Unity of 

 'Nature, ch. 10, p. 234. (Burt.) 



2032. MAN BEHIND INSTRUMENT 



Great Discoveries with Small Telescopes. 

 We know that Galileo made his discover- 

 ies of Jupiter's satellites with an instrument 

 that magnified only seven diameters, and 

 that he never could have used one of a high- 

 er power than thirty-two. . . . 



During the many years I passed at the 

 Paris Observatory I frequently had in my 

 hands the instruments made by Campani, 

 which were in such great repute during the 

 reign of Louis XIV. ; and when we consider 

 the faint light of Saturn's satellites, and 

 the difficulty of managing instruments 

 worked by strings only, we cannot sufficient- 

 ly admire the skill arid the untiring perse- 

 verance of the observer. HUMBOLDT Cos- 

 mos, vol. iii, p. 61. (H., 1897.) 



2033. MAN BUILDS CIVILIZATION 

 BY CHANGING THE PLACES OF THINGS 



The miner moves the ore and the fuel from 

 their subterranean resting-places, then they 

 are moved into the furnace, and by another 

 moving of combustibles the working of the 

 furnace is started; then the metals are 

 moved to the foundries and forges, then un- 

 der hammers, or squeezers, or into melting- 

 pots, and thence to molds. The workman 

 shapes the bars, or plates, or castings by 



removing a part of their substance, and by 

 more and more movings of material pro- 

 duces the engine, which does its work when 

 fuel and water are moved into its fireplace 

 and boiler. The statue is within the rough 

 block of marble; the sculptor merely moves 

 away the outer portions, and thereby ren- 

 ders his artistic conception visible to his 

 fellow men. The agriculturist merely moves 

 the soil in order that it may receive the 

 seed, which he then moves into it, and when 

 the growth is completed he moves the result, 

 and thereby makes his harvest. The same 

 may be said of every other operation. Man 

 alters the position of physical things in such 

 wise that the forces of Nature shall operate 

 upon them, and produce the changes or 

 other results that he requires. WILLIAMS 

 Chemistry of Cookery, ch. 1, p. 1. (A., 1900.) 



2034. MAN CAN NEVER APPRE- 

 HEND FIRST CAUSES All our knowl- 

 edge is limited, and we can never apprehend 

 the first causes of any phenomena. The 

 force of crystallization, the force of gravi- 

 tation and chemical affinity remain in them- 

 selves just as incomprehensible as adapta- 

 tion and inheritance or will and conscious- 

 ness. HAECKEL History of Creation, vol. 

 i, ch. 2, p. 33. (K. P. & Co., 1899.) 



2035. MAN CHANGING NATURAL 

 PRODUCTS Nature's Changes Slow Those 

 Wrought by Human Agency Sudden. What 

 Nature brings about in a great lapse of 

 time we occasion suddenly by changing the 

 circumstances in which a species has been 

 accustomed to live. All are aware that vege- 

 tables taken from their birthplace and cul- 

 tivated in gardens undergo changes which 

 render them no longer recognizable as the 

 same plants. Many which were naturally 

 hairy become smooth, or nearly so; a great 

 number of such as were creepers and trailed 

 along the ground rear their stalks and grow 

 erect. Others lose their thorns or asperi- 

 ties; others, again, from the ligneous state 

 which their stem possessed in hot climates, 

 where they were indigenous, pass to the her- 

 baceous ; and, among them, some which were 

 perennials become mere annuals. So well 

 do botanists know the effects of such 

 changes of circumstances that they are 

 averse to describe species from garden speci- 

 mens, unless they are sure that they have 

 been cultivated for a very short period. 

 LYELL Principles of Geology, bk. iii, ch. 33, 

 p. 569. (A., 1854.) 



2036. MAN, CIVILIZED, BECOMES 

 MASTER OF HIS ENVIRONMENT The 

 serious mistake made by Buckle is that he 

 thought what is true of man in his savage 

 state is also true of him during all the 

 stages of his development namely, that man 

 always remains under the dominion of his 

 environment. The truth, however, is that 

 man frees himself from his environment in 

 proportion as he rises in civilization, so that 

 instead of being Nature's slave he becomes 

 its master. BASTIAN Remark While Guid- 



