485 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Nature 

 Nature's 



2381. NATURE'S CONFORMITY TO 

 LAW, THE FASCINATION OF The great- 

 est instance of what the human mind can 

 effect by means of a well-recognized law of 

 natural phenomena is that afforded by mod- 

 ern astronomy. The one simple law of 

 gravitation regulates the motions of the 

 heavenly bodies not only of our own planet- 

 ary system, but also of the far more distant 

 double stars, from which even the ray of 

 light, the quickest of all messengers, needs 

 years to reach our eye ; and just on account 

 of this simple conformity with law the mo- 

 tions of the bodies in question can be accu- 

 lately predicted and determined both for the 

 past and for future years and centuries to a 

 fraction of a minute. 



On this exact conformity with law de- 

 pends also the certainty with which we know 

 how to tame the impetuous force of steam 

 and to make it the obedient servant of our 

 wants. On this conformity depends, more- 

 over, the intellectual fascination w r hich 

 chains the physicist to his subjects. HELM- 

 HOLTZ On the Conservation of Force, Popu- 

 lar Scientific Lectures, p. 318. (Translated 

 for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



2382. NATURE'S FURNACES Crar 



ter of Volcano Filled with Boiling Lava. 

 No one can look down on the mass of seeth- 

 ing material in violent agitation within the 

 fissures at the bottom of the crater of 

 Stromboli, without being forcibly reminded 

 of the appearances presented by liquids in a 

 state of boiling or ebullition. The glowing 

 material seems to be agitated by two kinds 

 of movements, the one whirling or rotatory, 

 the other vertical or up-and-down in its di- 

 rection. The fluid mass in this way appears 

 to be gradually impelled upw r ards till it ap- 

 proaches the lips of the aperture, when vast 

 bubbles are formed upon its surface, and to 

 the sudden bursting of these the phenomena 

 of the eruption are due. JUDD Volcanoes, 

 eh. 2, p. 19. (A., 1899.) 



2383. NATURE'S GREAT RESOLVENT 



Except in very rare cases Nature never 

 makes use of any other acid than carbonic 

 acid to bring about decompositions, trans- 

 formations, or new formations. TIBKEL Die 

 Umwandlungsprocesse im Mineralreich, p. 

 30. (Translated for Scientific Side-Lights.) 



2384. NATURE'S MANY HUES 

 FROM THREE PRIMARY COLORS 



Young, Helmholtz, and Maxwell reduce all 

 differences of hue to combinations in differ- 

 ent proportions of three primary colors. It 

 is demonstrable by experiment that from 

 the red, green, and violet all the other colors 

 of the spectrum may be obtained. TYNDALL 

 Light, lect. 1, p. 40. (A., 1898.) 



2385. NATURE'S MASTERPIECES 



OF LIFE Inheritance from Ancient Ages. 

 Above all other [forms], we should protect 

 and hold sacred those types, Nature's mas- 

 terpieces, which are first singled out for de- 

 struction on account of their size, or 



splendor, or rarity, and that false detestable 

 glory which is accorded to their most suc- 

 cessful slayers. In ancient times the spirit 

 of life shone brightest in these; and when 

 others that shared the earth with them were 

 taken by death they were left, being more 

 worthy of perpetuation. Like immortal 

 flowers they have drifted down to us on the 

 ocean of time, and their strangeness and 

 beauty bring to our imaginations a dream 

 and a picture of that unknown world, im- 

 measurably far removed, where man was 

 not: and when they perish, something of 

 gladness goes out from Nature, and the sun- 

 shine loses something of its brightness. 

 HUDSON Naturalist in La Plata, ch. 1, p. 29. 

 (C. &H., 1895.) 



2386. NATURE'S NON-CONDUCT- 



ING MEDIUM Experiment with Molten Iron. 

 Mr. Nasmyth, the inventor of the steam- 

 hammer, has lately illustrated, by a very 

 striking experiment, the non-conductibility 

 of a thin layer of dry sand and clay. Into 

 a caldron of iron one-fourth of an inch 

 thick, lined with sand and clay five-eighths 

 of an inch thick, he poured eight tons of 

 melted iron at a white heat. After the fused 

 metal had been twenty minutes in the cal- 

 dron the palm of the hand could be applied 

 to the outside without inconvenience, and 

 aiter forty minutes there was not heat 

 enough to singe writing-paper. This fact 

 may help us to explain how strata in contact 

 with dikes, or beds of fused matter, have 

 sometimes escaped without perceptible alter- 

 ation by heat. LYELL Geology, ch. 25, p. 

 413. (A., 1854.) 



2387. NATURE'S PARADOX 



an Unyielding Substance Bacon First 

 Proved It Incompressible " The Florentine 

 Experiment " a Later Copy. Water yields 

 so freely to the hand that you might sup- 

 pose it to be easily squeezed into a smaller 

 space. That this is not the case was proved 

 more than two hundred and sixty years ago 

 by Lord Bacon. He filled a hollow globe of 

 lead with the liquid, and, soldering up the 

 aperture, tried to flatten the globe by the 

 blows of a heavy hammer. He continued 

 hammering " till* the water, impatient of 

 further pressure, exuded through the solid 

 lead like a fine dew." Water was thus 

 proved to offer an immense resistance to 

 compression. Nearly fifty years afterwards, 

 a similar experiment, with the same result, 

 was made by the members of the Academy 

 Del Cimento in Florence. They, however, 

 used a globe of silver instead of a globe of 

 lead. This experiment is everywhere known 

 as " the Florentine experiment " ; but Ellis 

 and Spedding, the eminent biographers of 

 Bacon, have clearly shown that it ought to 

 be called "the Baconian experiment." 

 TYNDALL New Fragments, p. 343. (A., 

 1897.) 



2388. NATURE'S PICTURE-BOOK 



Wonders of Geology. We may turn over 

 these wonderful leaves [strata] one after 



