545 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Power 



ultraviolet emission has had peculiar inter- 

 est conferred upon it by the admirable re- 

 searches of Professor Stokes. The complete 

 spectrum of the sun consists, therefore, of 

 three distinct parts: first, of ultrared rays 

 of high heating power, but unsuited to the 

 purposes of vision; secondly, of luminous 

 rays which display the succession of colors, 

 red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, vio- 

 let; thirdly, of ultraviolet rays which, like 

 the ultrared ones, are incompetent to excite 

 vision, but which, unlike the ultrared rays, 

 possess a very feeble heating power. In 

 consequence, however, of their chemical en- 

 ergy these ultraviolet rays are of the ut- 

 most importance to the organic world. 

 TYNDALL Fragments of Science, ch. 2, p. 32, 

 (A., 1897.) 



2688. POWER OF THE &UTX Greater 

 than the Conjectures of Its Ancient Worship- 

 ers. At the return of the equinox the ris- 

 ing of the sun, the god of day, the king of 

 light, was saluted by the Incas from the 

 heights of their cyclopean terraces. The 

 same adoration, the same worship, is met 

 with among all the ancient peoples. With- 

 out yet taking into account the real size 

 and the incomparable importance of the daz- 

 zling star, they already knew that he is the 

 father of terrestrial Nature; they knew that 

 it is his heat which supports life ; they knew 

 that it is he who makes the trees in the 

 forests to grow, the stream to flow in the 

 valley, the flowers of the meadow to bloom, 

 the bird to sing in the wood, the cereals 

 and the vines to ripen, and they hailed in 

 him their father, their friend, and their 

 protector. 



Modern science has not only confirmed 

 but increased tenfold, a hundredfold, the 

 ancient conjectures. The sun's light, heat, 

 and power are as much above the an- 

 cient ideas as the poetry of Nature 

 is above our interpretation. No light cre- 

 ated by human industry can be compared 

 with his. Interposed before his disk, the 

 brilliant electric light appears black. The 

 highest temperatures of our furnaces, that 

 of the melting of gold, of silver, of platinum, 

 of iron, are but ice compared with the solar 

 heat. FLAMMARION Popular Astronomy, bk. 

 iii, ch. 3, p. 243. (A.) 



2689. POWER OF TWINING OR 

 CLIMBING INNATE Wonderful Adaptations. 

 That the movements of climbing plants 

 consist of ordinary circumnutation, modi- 

 fied by being increased in amplitude, is well 

 exhibited whilst the plants are very young; 

 for at this early age they move like other 

 seedlings, but as they grow older their move- 

 ments gradually increase without under- 

 going any other change. That this power 

 is innate, and is not excited by any external 

 agencies, beyond those necessary for growth 

 and vigor, is obvious. No one doubts that 

 this power has been gained for the sake 

 of enabling climbing plants to ascend to a 

 height, and thus to reach the light. This 



is effected by two very different methods 

 first by twining spirally round a support, 

 but to do so their stems must be long and 

 flexible; and secondly, in the case of leaf- 

 climbers and tendril-bearers, by bringing 

 these organs 'into contact with a support, 

 which is then seized by the aid of their 

 sensitiveness. It may be here remarked that 

 these latter movements have- no relation, as 

 far as we can judge, with circumnutation. 

 In other cases the tips of tendrils, after 

 having been brought into contact with a sup- 

 port, become developed into little disks 

 which adhere firmly to it. DARWIN Power 

 of Movement in Plants, ch. 5, p. 267. (A., 

 1900.) 



2690. POWER OF UNAIDED VISION 



May Even Surpass Telescope Visibility 

 of Distant Objects White on Black More 

 Distinct than Black on White. During my 

 visit at a charming country-seat . . . not 

 far from Quito, where the long-extended 

 crests of the volcano of Pichincha lay 

 stretched before me at a horizontal distance 

 trigonometrically determined at more than 

 90,000 feet, I was much struck by the cir- 

 cumstance that the Indians who were stand- 

 ing near me distinguished the figure of my 

 traveling companion Bonpland (who was 

 engaged in an expedition to the volcano) 

 as a white point moving on the black ba- 

 saltic sides of the rock, sooner than we could 

 discover him with our telescopes. The white 

 moving image was soon detected with the 

 naked eye both by myself and by my friend. 

 . . . Bonpland was enveloped in a white 

 cotton mantle, the poncho of the country; 

 assuming the breadth across the shoulders 

 to vary from three to five feet, according as 

 the mantle clung to the figure or fluttered 

 in the breeze, and judging from the known 

 distance, we found that the angle at which 

 the moving object could be distinctly seen 

 varied from 7" to 12". White objects on a 

 black ground are, according to Hueck's re- 

 peated experiments, distinguished at a great- 

 er distance than black objects on a white 

 ground. . . . Gauss's heliotrope light, 

 which has become so important an element 

 in German trigonometrical measurements, 

 has been seen with the naked eye reflected 

 from the Brocken on Hohenhagen, at a dis- 

 tance of about 227,000 feet, or more than 

 42 miles. HUMBOLDT Cosmos, vol. iii, p. 55. 

 (H., 1897.) 



2691. POWER, PHILOSOPHIC, COM- 

 BINED WITH MEMORY If ... we 



consider the brain to be the organic condi- 

 tion by which the vestiges of our experience 

 are associated with each other, we may 

 suppose that some brains are " wax to 

 receive and marble to retain." The slightest 

 impressions made on them abide. Names, 

 dates, prices, anecdotes, quotations, are in- 

 delibly retained, their several elements fixed- 

 ly cohering together, so that the individual 

 soon becomes a walking cyclopedia of in- 

 formation. . . . And when both memory 



