SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



418 



visible. He may, and he often does, walk 

 by faith and not by sight. ARGYLL Reign of 

 Law, ch. 6, p. 182. (Burt.) 



2047. MAN, HIS BODY UNDER- 

 GOES INCESSANT CHANGE Spiritual 

 Identity Constitutes the Personality. 

 Science proves that the elements constitu- 

 ting our bodies, even those which seem to 

 have most resistance, are renewing them- 

 selves all the while, so that within a given 

 period there is not one molecule but has 

 been transformed; yet in spite of this in- 

 cessant evolution of atoms there is a being 

 (and that is each one of us) feeling its 

 own identity, remembering what it thought, 

 felt, intended, and performed, ten, twenty, 

 thirty years ago, recognizing itself as the 

 responsible author, accusing or congratula- 

 ting itself. Without this identity, of which 

 memory is the guardian, there is no longer 

 human personality, nothing but a transient 

 aggregation of molecules remaining united 

 during the space of a human life. BERSIEB 

 "Souviens Toi" (a Sermon). (Translated for 

 Scientific Side-Lights.) 



2048. MAN, HIS DEVELOPMENT 

 DISTINGUISHES HIM FROM OTHER 



ANIMALS The attitude of the human be- 

 ing toward Nature is entirely different from 

 that of all other animate creatures upon 

 earth. With difficulty and only with the 

 help of adults does the child learn the use of 

 its members, and he requires a longer time 

 than any animal to acquire skill in the most 

 necessary functions of life. Human knowl- 

 edge and skill do not develop in all indi- 

 viduals as the blossoms and fruit of plants 

 from the seed: human individuals do not, 

 like the animals of the same species, attain 

 to the same facility. More especially it is 

 the peculiar gifts, the position in society, 

 and the destiny of life affecting individual 

 human beings that produce the greatest dif- 

 ferences in the cultivation of their physical 

 and mental powers. DROBISCH Darwinis- 

 mus und Sittenlehre. (Translated for Scien- 

 tific Side-Lights.) 



2049. MAN, HIS INFLUENCE UPON 

 THE EARTH Effect of Enclosure of Land- 

 Fertility Waiting for Protection. But how 

 important an element enclosure is I plainly 

 saw near Farnham, in Surrey. Here there 

 are extensive heaths, with a few clumps of 

 old Scotch firs on the distant hilltops; 

 within the last ten years large spaces have 

 been enclosed, .and self-sown firs are now 

 springing up in multitudes, so close together 

 that all cannot live. When I ascertained 

 that these young trees had not been sown or 

 planted I was so much surprised at their 

 numbers that I went to several points of . 

 view, whence I could examine hundreds of 

 acres of the unenclosed heath, and literally 

 I could not see a single Scotch fir except 

 the old planted clumps. But on looking 

 closely between the stems of the heath, I 

 found a multitude of seedlings and little 

 trees which had been perpetually browsed 



down by the cattle. In one square yard, at 

 a point some hundred yards distant from 

 one of the old clumps, I counted thirty-two 

 little trees; and one of them, with twenty- 

 six rings of growth, had during many 

 years tried to raise its head above the stems 

 of the heath, and had failed. No wonder 

 that, as soon as the land was enclosed, it 

 became thickly clothed with vigorously 

 growing young firs. Yet the heath was so 

 extremely barren and so extensive that no 

 one would ever have imagined that cattle 

 would have so closely and effectually 

 searched it for food. DARWIN Origin of 

 Species, ch. 1, p. 67. (Burt.) 



2050. MAN, HIS SUPREME DIS- 

 TINCTION IN THE ANIMAL WORLD 

 Love of and Sacrifice for Truth. Man 

 strives after the truth for the sake of truth ; 

 he wants to know for the sake of knowing; 

 his impulsion for knowledge, his tendency 

 after light and truth, is so strong that, 

 whether knowledge of the truth is produc- 

 tive of injury or advantage, he strives for it. 

 And even if he foresees that the knowledge 

 he has foreboded and sought after will only 

 excite ridicule, hatred, contempt, and perse- 

 cution as soon as found and communicated 

 to others, he nevertheless persists until he 

 finds and brings it to light. Have not men 

 suffered severe affliction, not shunning cruel 

 martyrdom, from love of the truth? But 

 where in the entire realm of the animal 

 world do you find any trace of this quality? 

 GRAUE Darwinismus und Sittlichkeit 

 (Deutsche Zeit- und Streit-Fragen, p. 454). 

 (Translated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



2051. MAN KINDRED TO THE 

 STARS The Human Body Analyzed Spec- 

 troscopic Analysis of Heavenly Bodies. 

 In the South Kensington Museum there is, 

 as everybody knows, an immense collection 

 of objects, appealing to all tastes and all 

 classes, and we find there at the same time 

 people belonging to the wealthy and culti- 

 vated part of society lingering over the 

 Louis Seize cabinets or the old majolica, and 

 the artisan and his wife studying the state- 

 ments as to the relative economy of baking- 

 powders, or admiring Tippoo Saib's wooden 

 tiger. 



There is one shelf, however, which seems 

 to have some attraction common to all social 

 grades, for its contents appear to be of equal 

 interest to the peer and the costermonger. 

 It is the representation of a man resolved 

 into his chemical elements, or rather an ex- 

 hibition of the materials of which the 

 human body is composed. There is a defi- 

 nite amount of water, for instance, in our 

 blood and tissues, and there on the shelf are 

 just so many gallons of water in a large 

 vessel. Another jar shows the exact quan- 

 tity of carbon in us; smaller bottles con- 

 tain our iron and our phosphorus in just 

 proportion, while others exhibit still other 

 constituents of the body; and the whole re- 

 poses on the shelf as if ready for the coming' 

 of a new Frankenstein to re-create the 



