Ple 

 Poi 



dge 

 sons 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



534 



might; and every day during which a break- 

 down is postponed adds to the chances of its 

 not occurring at all. JAMES Talks to Teach- 

 ers, ch. 8, p. 67. (H. H. & Co., 1900.) 



2633. PLEIADES, ORIGIN OF THE 



NAME The Mariner's Guide in Heaven. 

 The Pleiades [were] doubtless known to the 

 rudest nations from the earliest times; the 

 mariner's stars Pleias, airb TOO ir^eiv ( from 

 ir\flv, to sail), according to the etymology 

 of the old scholiast of Aratus, who is prob- 

 ably more correct than those modern writers 

 who would derive the name from irAerff 

 plenty. The navigation of the Mediterra- 

 nean lasted from May to the beginning of 

 November, from the early rising to the early 

 setting of the Pleiades. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, 

 vol. iii, p. 141. (H., 1897.) 



2634. POET SHOWS TRUE SCIEN- 

 TIFIC INSIGHT The description given by 

 Strabo and Pausanias of this elevation [the 

 Hill of Methone, now Methana, in the penin- 

 sula of Troezene] led one of the Roman 

 poets, most celebrated for his richness of 

 fancy, to develop views which agree in a re- 

 markable manner with the theory of modern 

 geognosy. "Near Troezene is a tumulus, 

 steep and devoid^of trees, once a plain, now 

 a mountain. The vapors enclosed in dark 

 caverns in vain seek a passage by which 

 they may escape. The heaving earth, in- 

 flated by the force of the compressed vapors, 

 expands 'like a bladder filled with air, or 

 like a goatskin. The ground has remained 

 thus inflated, and the high projecting emi- 

 nence has been solidified by time into a 

 naked rock." Thus picturesquely and, as 

 analogous phenomena justify us in believ- 

 ing, thus truly has Ovid described that 

 great natural phenomenon which occurred 

 282 years before our era. HUMBOLDT Cos- 

 mos, vol. i, p. 240. (H., 1897.) 



2635. POETRY HAS EXISTED WITH- 

 OUT SCIENCE Knowledge Increases Appre- 

 ciation of the Order, Rhythm, and Beauty of 

 Nature. I do not thus think well, or indeed 

 anything, of the doctrine that a poetry 

 nursed in utter ignorance of the scientific 

 aspects of Nature presents us with an essen- 

 tially typical development of the poetic 

 faculty. No one can deny that in the ab- 

 sence of all scientific knowledge, that fac- 

 ulty may be developed to sing in loftiest 

 strains and fullest measure. But I enter a 

 strong protest against the misrepresenta- 

 tion that the scientific faculty destroys the 

 poetic, or that, of necessity, an exact meth- 

 od of looking at things should utterly annul 

 the sense wherewith we discover their exter- 

 nal beauty or the wondrous and subtle 

 rhythm and measure that pervade the uni- 

 verse at large. ANDREW WILSON Science 

 and Poetry, p. 10. (Hum., 1888.) 



2636. POETRY, INDESTRUCTIBLE 

 POWER OF Science Not to Supersede The 

 Poetry of Science. That poetry must ever 



assert a powerful influence on man's estate, 

 no reasonable being may doubt. It is too 

 closely bound up with the personal history 

 of man in all stages of civilization, too 

 nearly related to his inmost mind, as the 

 expression of his deepest emotions, to fall 

 into decay even when it lights upon a gross- 

 Iv utilitarian time. The song of victory, 

 the paean of joy, the " lo triumphe " of the 

 conqueror, or the coronach and lament for 

 the dead, are expressions wherein the true 

 poetry of our nature bursts forth in spite of 

 ourselves; whilst developing from these 

 more rugged and primitive sources, as a 

 softened stream passes sidewards from a 

 mountain torrent, we find the cultured soul 

 of the poet communing with Nature, and 

 teaching us new and better feelings, and the 

 glory of a higher life. It is not saying too 

 much, then, to predict that the true mission 

 of poetry is that of leading us to see fairer 

 aspects of things, to cultivate the beauty- 

 sense, and to lead us to see Nature in her 

 thousand moods, even if the thoughts it 

 evokes are ofttimes " too deep for tears." 

 Poetry thus becomes the handmaid of cul- 

 ture, and still more of religion. Science it 

 may never attempt to supersede, altho there 

 is and must be a poetry of knowledge. 

 . . . But poetry, as the expression of the 

 deepest emotions of the human soul, can 

 never fade. In her records lie embalmed, 

 as in a treasure-house, the thoughts of the 

 far-back past, and the noblest sentiments 

 which humanity may express. Such are the 

 functions of true poesy, and such the mission 

 of those 



Who on earth have made us heirs 

 Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays ! 



ANDREW WILSON Science and Poetry, p. 

 11. (Hum., 1888.) 



2637. POINTS, DEBATABLE, SET- 

 TLED Many Nebulce Are Star-clusters Some 

 Are Certainly Gas-clouds. I have spoken 

 hitherto of nebulae as star-cloudlets, and 

 unquestionably large numbers of these ob- 

 jects are really composed of stars, and give 

 forth the same sort of light (in general re- 

 spects) as our sun and other single stars. 

 But others have been shown by the research- 

 es of our great physicist, Dr. Huggins, to be 

 composed of luminous gas or vapor. The 

 famous nebula in Orion is among the num- 

 ber thus constituted; so are the dumb-bell 

 nebula in Vulpecula, the ring nebula in 

 Lyra, and other well-known objects. In the 

 southern hemisphere the great nebula in 

 Argo has been shown to be gaseous (by 

 Captain Herschel), and the fine, irregular 

 nebula in the greater Magellanic Cloud is 

 another of these gaseous masses. The strange 

 objects called the planetary nebulae are also 

 all gaseous, so far as these researches have 

 yet extended. PROCTOK Our Place among 

 Infinities, p. 227. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



2638. POISON, ALCOHOL A Is It also 

 a Food ? The reader of this paper may criti- 

 cize the wording of the question contained 



