Molecules 

 Morality 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



456 



many solids can be changed into gases, led 

 to the conception that they owed their pe- 

 culiar properties to their molecules being 

 in a state of intensely rapid motion in all 

 directions. On this theory the molecules are 

 very far apart in proportion to their size, 

 and are continually coming in contact with 

 each other. Owing to their perfect elas- 

 ticity they rebound without loss of motion 

 or energy, and their continual impact against 

 the sides of the vessel containing them is 

 what gives to gases their great expansibility. 

 From a study of these various properties 

 it has been calculated that at ordinary tem- 

 peratures there are some hundreds of tril- 

 lions of molecules in a cubic inch of gas, 

 and that these collide with each other eight 

 thousand millions of times in a second. 

 The average length of the path between two 

 collisions of a molecule is less than the two- 

 hundred-thousandth of an inch, yet this 

 small length is supposed to be at least a 

 hundred times as great as the diameter of 

 each molecule. WALLACE The Wonderful 

 Century, ch. 7, p. 54. (D. M. & Co., 1899.) 



2234. MOLECULES OF IRON MAG- 

 NETIC Magnetism an Inherent Property 

 Ampere's Theory. Iron and steel have a 

 peculiar property called magnetism. It is 

 an attraction in many ways unlike the at- 

 traction of cohesion or the attraction of 

 gravitation. It is very certain that mag- 

 netism is an inherent property of the mole- 

 cules of iron and steel, and, to a small de- 

 gree, other forms of matter. That is to 

 say, the molecules are little natural mag- 

 nets of themselves. It is as unnecessary 

 to inquire why they are magnets as it is 

 to inquire why the molecules of all ordinary 

 substances possess the attraction of cohesion. 

 The one is as easy to explain as the other. 

 People of all ages have insisted upon ma- 

 king a greater mystery of all electrical and 

 magnetic phenomena than they do of other 

 natural forces. Ampere's theory is that 

 electric currents are flowing around the 

 molecules which render them magnetic; but 

 it is. just as easy to suppose that magnetism 

 is an inherent quality of the molecule. (The 

 word " molecule " is here used as referring 

 to the smallest particle of iron.) 



These little molecular magnets, so small 

 that 100,000 million million million of them 

 can be put into a cubic inch of space, have 

 their attractions satisfied by forming into 

 little molecular rings, with their unlike 

 poles together, so that when the iron is in 

 a natural or unmagnetized condition it does 

 not attract other iron. ELISHA GRAY ^a- 

 ture's Miracles, vol. iii, ch. 4, p. 25. (F. 

 H. & H., 1900.) 



2235. MONKEY TRAINED TO GATHER 



NUTS Limited Intelligence Unwilling Obedi- 

 ence. The orang-outan, indeed, which for 

 its resemblance in form to man, and ap- 

 parently for no other good reason, has been 

 assumed by Lamarck to be the most perfect 

 of the inferior animals, has been tamed by 



the savages of Borneo and made to climb 

 lofty trees, and to bring down the fruit. 

 But he is said to yield to his masters an 

 unwilling obedience, and to be held in sub- 

 jection only by severe discipline. We know 

 nothing of the faculties of this animal which 

 can suggest the idea that it rivals the ele- 

 phant in intelligence, much less anything 

 which can countenance the dreams of those 

 who have fancied that it might have been 

 transmuted into the *' dominant race." One 

 of the baboons of Sumatra (Simia carpole- 

 gus) appears to be more docile, and is fre- 

 quently trained by the inhabitants to ascend 

 trees for the purpose of gathering coco- 

 nuts, a service in which the animal is very 

 expert. He selects, says Sir Stamford 

 Raffles, the ripe nuts with great judgment, 

 and pulls no more than he is ordered. The 

 capuchin and cacajao monkeys are, accord- 

 ing to Humboldt, taught to ascend trees in 

 the same manner, and to throw down fruit, 

 on the banks of the lower Orinoco. LYELL 

 Principles of Geology, bk. iii, ch. 35, p. 599. 

 (A., 1854.) 



2236. MONOTONY OF SOUTH- AMER- 

 ICAN PLAINS Birds Subdued by Nature's 

 Silence. The general aspect of the plain is 

 monotonous, and in spite of the unobstruct- 

 ed view and the unfailing verdure and 

 sunshine, somewhat melancholy, altho never 

 somber; and doubtless the depressed and 

 melancholy feeling the pampa inspires in 

 those who are unfamiliar with it is due 

 in a great measure to the paucity of life 

 and to the profound silence. The wind, as 

 may well be imagined on that extensive 

 level area, is seldom at rest; there, as in the 

 forest, it is a " bard of many breathings," 

 and the strings it breathes upon give out 

 an endless variety of sorrowful sounds, from 

 the sharp, fitful sibilations of the dry, wiry 

 grasses on the barren places to the long, 

 mysterious moans that swell and die in the 

 tall, polished rushes of the marsh. It is 

 also curious to note that, with a few, excep- 

 tions, the resident birds are comparatively 

 very silent, even those belonging to groups 

 which elsewhere are highly loquacious. . . . 

 As a rule, their voices are strangely sub- 

 dued; Nature's silence has infected them, 

 and they have become silent by habit. 

 HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 1, p. 

 8. (C. & H., 1895.) 



2237. MONSTERS OF SENTIMEN- 

 TALITY Woman Weeping in Theater Coach- 

 man Freezing Outside Resolute Doing to 

 Keep Character Real (Matt, vii, 24-29). 

 All goods are disguised by the vulgarity 

 of their concomitants in this workaday 

 world; but woe to him who can only recog- 

 nize them when he thinks them in their pure 

 and abstract form! The habit of excessive 

 novel-reading and theatergoing will pro- 

 duce true monsters in this line. The weep- 

 ing of a Russian lady over the fictitious per- 

 sonages in the play, while her coachman is 

 freezing to death on his seat outside, is the 



