Mystery 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



474 



tropical heat and an arctic cold have alter- 

 nately prevailed over a great portion of the 

 present temperate zone. AGASSIZ Geological 

 Sketches, ser. i, ch. 8, p. 210. (H. M. & Co., 

 1896.) 



2322. The different ex- 

 planations of this wide-spread refrigeration 

 [of the Glacial epoch] are stated and briefly 

 discussed. To account for it seems to me, 

 in the present state of our knowledge, the 

 most perplexing of all the problems which 

 this epoch presents. BONNEY Ice -work, 

 Present and Past, pref., p. 9. (A., 1896.) 



2323. MYSTERY OF HEREDITY 



In the case of self-division, where the whole 

 organism falls into two halves, in the for- 

 mation of buds, where a considerable por- 

 tion of the whole body, already more or less 

 developed, separates from the producing in- 

 dividual, we easily understand that the 

 forms and vital phenomena should be the 

 same in the producing and produced organ- 

 ism. It is much more difficult to understand 

 in the formation of germ-buds, and more 

 difficult still in the formation of germ-cells, 

 how this very small, quite undeveloped por- 

 tion of the body, this group of cells, or this 

 single cell, not only directly takes with it 

 certain parental qualities into its independ- 

 ent existence, but also after its separation 

 from the parental individual develops into 

 a many-celled body, and in this repeats the 

 iorms and vital phenomena of the original 

 producing organism. HAECKEL History of 

 Creation, vol. i, ch. 8, p. 199. (K. P. & Co., 

 1899.) 



2324. MYSTERY OF INTERACTION 

 OF MIND AND BRAIN Incorporation of 

 the Two Impossible Succession in Time 

 Interchange of Subject and Object. When, 

 therefore, we talk of incorporating mind 

 with brain we must be held as speaking un- 

 der an important reserve or qualification. 

 Asserting the union in the strongest manner, 

 we must yet deprive it of the almost invin- 

 cible association of union in place. An ex- 

 tended organism is the condition of our 

 passing into a state where there is no exten- 

 sion. A human being is an extended and 

 material mass, attached to which is the 

 power of becoming alive to feeling and 

 thought, the extreme remove from all that 

 is material; a condition of trance wherein, 

 while it lasts, the material drops out of 

 view so much so that we have not the 

 power to represent the two extremes as 

 lying side by side, as container and con- 

 tained, or in any other mode of local con- 

 junction. The condition of our existing 

 thoroughly in the one is the momentary 

 eclipse or extinction of the other. BAIN 

 Mind and Body, ch. 6, p. 34. (Hum., 1880.) 



2325. MYSTERY OF LIFE Scientific 

 Explanation Often Mere Restatement. Not 

 to speak of the connection of the body and 

 the mind, not to speak of the nature of 

 life, or still more of the nature of death, 

 the simplest questions connected with our 



own organization are unanswered and unan- 

 swerable. Science gives us no help, because 

 the explanations which to it are ultimate 

 are not ultimate at all to the faculties 

 which seek for more light concerning them. 

 The very language of science is, in this 

 respect, often more deceptive than helpful, 

 inasmuch as it is the fashion of scientific 

 men to pass off as explanations the mere 

 restatement of facts concealed under words 

 derived from the dead languages. Perhaps 

 it is all that they can do; but at least the 

 poverty of the device should be seen and 

 known. The " atoms " and the " molecules," 

 the " cells " and the " differentiated struc- 

 tures," are these the builders, or are they 

 only the bricks and stones? And the forces 

 and the energies which work in these and 

 upon these, what are they? And if these 

 are undying and inexhaustible, how are all 

 the forms in which they are embodied so 

 fugitive and evanescent? ARGYLL Unity 

 of Nature, ch. 4, p. 77. (Burt.) 



2326. MYSTERY OF LIGHT Its Mo- 

 tion Incomprehensible. What is the essen- 

 tial nature of light? How do we see the 

 universe? How does a luminous body radi- 

 ate, and by what vehicle do its rays reach 

 our eyes? What are even these rays? Man 

 has discussed this great problem for thou- 

 sands of years. The ancients believed that 

 the rays might be shot forth from our eyes 

 to lay hold of objects far away; Newton 

 thought, on the contrary, that objects emit- 

 ted luminous particles which pass through 

 space and strike our retina; Young and 

 Fresnel have since shown that luminous 

 bodies do not emit any material particle, 

 but cause the surrounding fluid to vibrate, 

 as a bell makes the air vibrate. This has 

 led us to imagine as indispensable to the 

 propagation of light a certain fluid named 

 ether, which is extremely light, and dissemi- 

 nated through the whole of space. 



Just as we see the circular waves of a 

 piece of water succeed each other round the 

 point where the water has been struck, as 

 air condenses and dilates in spherical waves 

 round the resounding tuning-fork, so the 

 ethereal fluid which fills space gives birth 

 to a series of spherical waves, succeeding 

 each other all round a luminous body. The 

 waves of water are transmitted so slowly 

 that the eye easily follows their motion; 

 those of air fly with the velocity of 1,100 

 feet per second, varying with the tempera- 

 ture and the density of the atmosphere; 

 those of the ether pass through immensity 

 with the dizzy velocity of 186,000 miles per 

 second. The most marvelous fact is that 

 every star, every sun in space, is the center 

 of constant undulations, which thus perpetu- 

 ally cross each other through immensity, 

 without ever being confused or mutually 

 mingled. I confess, for my part, that this 

 fact appears to me absolutely incomprehen- 

 sible. FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, 

 bk. iii, ch. 7, p. 316. (A.) 



